Orchestrating comfort: The role of funeral directors

Hyland, Liam; Morse, Janice M.

doi:10.1080/07481189508253393

Cited by 29 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…In the funeral industry, personal values underpinning awareness would be essential to a successful business. Hyland and Morse 19 reported research in the United States has shown that the role has evolved over the last 50 years from preparing and burying the dead to that of: co-ordinator and planner, confidant, counsellor, salesman, manager and comforter of family and friends of the deceased. As people become more distant from their communities and from religious leaders, the funeral director may be the only 'official visitor' (or indeed in some cases the only visitor) for the bereaved and their compassionate approach is embedded within the very practical aspects of their work.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compassion in healthcare – lessons from a qualitative study of the end of life care of people with dementia

Crowther

Wilson

Horton³

et al. 2013

J R Soc Med

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Objectives: A lack of compassion in UK healthcare settings has received much recent attention. This study explores the experiences of people with dementia in the last year of life and time surrounding death and how the presence and lack of compassion, kindness and humanity influenced the experience of care. Design: Qualitative in-depth interviews with bereaved informal carers of people with dementia. Setting: United Kingdom. Participants: Forty bereaved carers -31 women and nine men -with an age range of 18-86 years and from wide socioeconomic backgrounds participated. Main outcome measures: Experiences of carers of care for person with dementia during last year of life. Results: The interviews highlighted differences and challenges in care settings in providing compassionate, humanistic care and the impact of the care experienced by the person with dementia during the last year of life on informal carers during the bereavement period and beyond. Excellent examples of compassionate care were experienced alongside very poor and inhumane practices. Conclusion: The concepts of compassion, kindness and humanity in dementia care are discussed within the paper. The ability to deliver care that is compassionate, kind and humanistic exists along a continuum across care settingsexamples of excellent care sit alongside examples of very poor care and the reasons for this are explored together with discussion as to how health and social care staff can be trained and supported to deliver compassionate care.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compassion in healthcare – lessons from a qualitative study of the end of life care of people with dementia

Crowther

Wilson

Horton³

et al. 2013

J R Soc Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Kaldestad and Danbolt (as cited by Hyland & Morse, 1995) saw participation in the funeral ritual as therapeutic in that funerals help to prevent prolonged mourning and depression. Cassem (1976) went so far as to say that "failure to face and to participate in these ritual steps is a serious mental health hazard for those who have just sustained the loss of a loved person" (p. 14).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Death Anxiety in a National Sample of United States Funeral Directors and its Relationship with Death Exposure, Age, and Sex

2009

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The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the level of death anxiety among a national sample of United States funeral directors with varying levels of death exposure, age, and sex. Utilizing the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale (MFODS), the results showed a significant, but weak negative relationship between levels of death anxiety and the participants' reported number of funerals attended per year. The correlation between death anxiety scores and the number of reported embalming cases performed yearly was, however, not significant. We found a significant negative correlation between death anxiety and age in both men and women funeral directors. The difference in the death anxiety scores between men (n = 166) and women (n = 38) funeral directors was not significant. There was a significant negative correlation with age in both men and women in several fears of death including fear of the dying process, fear for significant others, and fear of premature death. The significant negative correlations were stronger for women than men across all three subscales. Results, direction for further research, and implications of the findings for mental health workers are discussed.

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“…In the context of dirty work, backstages appear to serve two functions. The first is, where possible, to screen clients and the public from the stigmatized particulars of the work itself (Hyland & Morse, ; cf. Dick, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Congruence work in stigmatized occupations: A managerial lens on employee fit with dirty work

et al. 2017

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Summary Although research has established that it is often difficult for individuals engaged in dirty work to adjust to stigma and the attributes giving rise to stigma, little theory or empirical work addresses how managers may help workers adjust to dirty work. Interviews with managers across 18 dirty work occupations—physically tainted (e.g., animal control), socially tainted (e.g., corrections), and morally tainted (e.g., exotic entertainment)—indicate that managers engage in “congruence work”: behaviors, sensemaking, and sensegiving that they perceive as helping individuals adjust and develop a stronger sense of person–environment fit. Specifically, congruence work focuses on 3 phases of managerial practices that correspond to individuals' growing experience in the occupation. First, recruitment/selection involves overcoming individuals' aversion to dirty work by selecting individuals with an affinity for the work and providing a realistic stigma preview. Second, socialization involves helping newcomers adjust to distasteful tasks and to stigma by using targeted divestiture, developing perspective taking, helping newcomers manage external relationships, and utilizing desensitization or immersion. Third, ongoing management roles involve cementing individuals' fit by fostering social validation, protecting workers from dirty work hazards, and negotiating the frontstage/backstage boundary. The practices identified as congruence work highlight the important role that managers can play in facilitating adjustment for both “dirty workers” and presumably their less stigmatized counterparts.

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Orchestrating comfort: The role of funeral directors

Cited by 29 publications

References 1 publication

Compassion in healthcare – lessons from a qualitative study of the end of life care of people with dementia

Compassion in healthcare – lessons from a qualitative study of the end of life care of people with dementia

Death Anxiety in a National Sample of United States Funeral Directors and its Relationship with Death Exposure, Age, and Sex

Congruence work in stigmatized occupations: A managerial lens on employee fit with dirty work

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