Category: Podcasts

There is an implied though not plainly expressed expectation in our culture that the parent will die before the child. The orderliness of the universe seems to be undermined when this expectation is unmet. The unnaturalness is not determined by the age of the child, but by the fact that the child dies out of turn with the parent. The death of a child is considered a greater loss in our culture because the child has not had the opportunity to live a full life compared to the adult or the elderly. The emotional and spiritual needs of dying children vary greatly with age and intellectual ability. 

Dying persons in this age group present counseling challenges that defer from the elderly. The middle aged adult with family and work responsibilities who is stricken with terminal illness and the elderly in a nursing home face their deaths with different concerns due to their perceived age differences and social responsibilities. The sense of loss, injustice, and anger is often more intense in the person at this middle stage of life. The major psychosocial concerns in this age group are the loss of identity, work, family and the reality of not being able to support their families or not being able to raise their children.  When compared to the death of an elderly person, the family members and friends of a dying person in this age group have intense psychosocial issues.