Query: death education

title: The effectiveness of 8A model death education on the reduction of death depression: A preliminary study
abstract: Death education using the 8A model can reduce death distress and promote mental health. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of the 8A model death education programme for reducing death depression among nurses. The hypothesis was that participating in the 8A model death education programme would reduce death depression.

title: Enhancing Existential Thinking through Death Education: A Qualitative Study among High School Students
abstract: The censorship of death related issues is widespread in contemporary Western culture because the boundary between death and life is substantially managed in medical areas. In the context of Italian educational initiatives, to remove this limitation, 215 high school students in Southern Italy were educated on death through conventional and informal lessons. The students answered a questionnaire with open questions to survey their emotional and reflective experiences. Their answers were qualitatively, thematically analysed to explore how the representation of death can follow a death education course, and if this experience can be managed without harmful effects. The students' answers narrated how the course reduced their anxiety linked to these themes, on the one hand improving communication between peers by making it more authentic and empathic and, on the other, providing alternative perspectives on life. Indeed, the project offered an opportunity to discuss something strongly heartfelt but rarely faced, and the survey confirmed that the research objectives were fully achieved.

title: Beyond the Wall: Death Education at Middle School as Suicide Prevention
abstract: This study investigates the psychological effects of participation in Death Education (DeEd) by middle school children in two towns in northeast Italy in which suicides occur to a greater extent than in the rest of the region. The aims of the project "Beyond the Wall" were inherent to the prevention of suicide, address existential issues and enhance the meaning of life through positive intentions for the future and reflection on mortality. It involved eight classes (150 students in four classes in the experimental group; 81 in four classes in the control group) engaging with films, workgroup activities, photovoice and psychodrama. The constructs of resilience, emotional competency and psychological well being were monitored with the Resilience Scale for Adolescents, the Hopelessness Scale for Children, the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children and the Stirling Children's Well being Scale. The DeEd intervention was found to be significantly related to some of the variables investigated, improving the students' ability to recognise emotions and communicate them verbally while maintaining stable initial characteristics, such as psychological well being and positive expectations for the future.

title: Introducing the Study of Life and Death Education to Support the Importance of Positive Psychology: An Integrated Model of Philosophical Beliefs, Religious Faith, and Spirituality
abstract: Life education, also known as life and death education, is an important subject in Taiwan with institutions (e.g. high school) offering degree programs and courses that focus on quality learning and implementation of life education. What is interesting from the perspective of Taiwanese education is that the teaching of life education also incorporates a number of Eastern derived and conceptualized tenets, for example, Buddhist teaching and the importance of spiritual wisdom. This premise contends then that life education in Taiwan, in general, is concerned with the promotion, fulfillment, and cherishing of quality life experiences (e.g. personal contentment, happiness) One example of life education, which resonates with other spiritual beliefs and religious faiths (e.g. Hinduism) is related to spiritual cultivation and the enlightenment of life wisdom. Our own teaching of the subject, likewise, places emphasis on the goal of teaching students to seek meaningful understanding of and appreciation for three major, interrelated components of life education: life wisdom, life practice, and life care. It has been acknowledged, to a certain degree, that life education has made meaningful contributions, such as the creation and facilitation of a civil, vibrant society, and that many Taiwanese individuals show dignity, respect for elders, and reverence for spiritual and religious faiths. For example, aside from high quality hospice care, many Taiwanese engage in different types of benevolent acts (e.g. providing spiritual advice to someone who is dying) where possible. Life education is a beneficial subject for teaching and learning as its theoretical understanding may help individuals cope with pathologies and negative conditions and life experiences. One negative life experience, in this case, is the ultimate fate of humankind: death. Approaching death and/or the onset of grief is something that we all have to experience. How does one approach death? It is not easy feat, and of course, grief for a loved one is personal, and some of us struggle with this. We contend that spiritual cultivation and enlightenment, arising from life education, may assist us with the topic of death (e.g. the possibility of transcendence beyond the realm of life) More importantly however, from our own teaching experiences and research development, we strongly believe and rationalize that the subject of life education could, indeed, coincide with and support the paradigm of positive psychology (Seligman, 1999, 2010; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) Forming the premise of the present conceptual analysis article, we propose that a person's "spiritual and enlightened self," reflecting the convergence of three major aspects of life education (i.e. philosophical reflection, enrichment of personal well being, and spiritual cultivation) would result in the initiation and creation of a number of virtues and positive characteristics, for example, having a positive outlook in life, having a perceived sense of spirituality, showing compassion, forgiveness, etc. These virtues and quality characteristics, from our philosophical reasoning, are equivalent to those qualities that the paradigm of positive psychology advocates for. In summary, we conceptualize that the subject of life education, from the perspective of Taiwanese education, may intertwine with the paradigm of positive psychology. A person's spiritual and enlightened self, or his/her "holistic self," from our rationalization, is the ultimate optimal life experience that he/she may have, enabling him/her to address the gamut of life conditions and experiences. The distinctive nature of life education in this case, as a point of summary, is that it incorporates spiritual beliefs and religious faiths (e.g. Buddhist faith) encouraging a person to seek nature and divine human relationships, as well as to contemplate and to explore the complex nature of his/her inner self. The notion of Buddhist samsara, for example, as "evidence" of spirituality, entailing the endless cycle of birth, rebirth, and redeath, may provide a person with hope into the afterlife. Such esoteric discourse, we contend, is positive and optimistic, allowing individuals to discard the dividing line between life and death.

title: What do teachers think of death education?
abstract: This study sets out to address a gap in research into teachers' attitudes and opinions toward death education. To meet this objective, two complementary instruments were designed and validated: the Death Education Attitudes Scale Teachers (DEAS T) which showed suitable psychometric values, and the Death Education Questionnaire Teachers (DEQ T) The sample comprised 683 teachers from a range of schools. The results show moderately positive attitudes toward death education. Variables such as gender, age, type of teacher, and religious beliefs all influenced results. The findings argue in favor of the inclusion of death in education and teacher training.

title: Death education from an Hegelian perspective.
abstract: This paper discusses death education from an Hegelian perspective, with the aim to generate insights to complement existing literature on death education. Three Hegelian elements are identified. The first is the natural view, that is, death is a natural phenomenon. The second is the moral view, that is, death is significant in contributing to the ethical life and no individuals have the right to end their own life. The third is the ontological view, that is, the life and death struggles for recognition raises individuals' consciousness, and death transforms the divine into universal and enables the ultimate realization of the spirit to Absolute Knowing.

title: COVID 19 brings a new urgency for advance care planning: Implications of death education.
abstract: The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus disease (COVID 19) cases and deaths of any nation. Deaths due to COVID 19, especially among older adults and people of color, have created an urgency for advanced care planning (ACP) Despite benefits of ACP, only one third of U.S. adults have completed advance directives, in part due to a lack of death education. We recommend four actions to increase death education and ACP completion: (1) integrate death education into teacher preparation programs, (2) incorporate death education in undergraduate curricula, (3) provide better education in death and dying to future health professionals, and (4) educate the public.

title: Death education for children and young people in public schools.
abstract: Conversations about death are often associated with fear, anxiety, avoidance and misunderstandings. Many adults feel that these discussions are inappropriate and confusing for young people. In this project, two fourth year nursing students partnered with a local palliative care team to examine death education for children. The nursing students focused on children's understandings of death and their coping abilities, the lack of appropriate discussions about death with children, and the implementation of death education in public schools. Three online death education resources were identified and evaluated for use in public schools. This project fueled preliminary local discussions and advocacy efforts in the provision of death education for children. In the future, death education will need to be incorporated into education plans at local schools, and could be done in collaboration with the local palliative care team.

title: Death education for future physicians
abstract: Death is a real part of medicine that we physicians have to face. However, we receive little education and training on how to confront death, and are very much unprepared. Because of our poor understanding of death and the process of dying, we are limited in our ability to discuss with patients sensitive issues, such as how long they will survive and what dying is like, in our patients' final days. At the same time, significant communication barriers to discussing end of life care exist between doctors and patients and families. Communication strategies during end of life care should, thus, be learned by medical students and residents to understand how the human mind, end of life care and medicine interact. The following case presentation, together with what was thought and learned during the end of life care by an inexperienced junior doctor (the phrase enclosed in single quotation marks) illustrates the difficulties and problems experienced by one of the senior authors during his first year residency training. It also illustrates the importance for medical residents to sincerely face the death of an individual patient in their care, and to understand the meaning of death through their experience of the process of the death of a human. The first case was an 84 year old man with stroke who had been diagnosed as having multiple metastatic liver tumors of unknown origin, but had declined to have further examination and treatment, because a radical therapy was thought not possible at that time. Five months later, he was admitted with acute pneumonia. Despite successful treatment for pneumonia, his general condition gradually deteriorated during the course of hospitalization. As he seemed to be aware that he was in the last moments of his life, conversation with the patent became increasingly difficult during daily visits to his room. He peacefully died on the 16th day of his hospitalization.

title: The Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying patient: Euthanasia through the back door, or the sign of poor death education?
abstract: The Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP) was an integrated care pathway for patients in the final days or hours of life, developed at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital in conjunction with the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute, Liverpool. The LCP became increasingly the normative style of care for patients in the terminal stage across NHS England from the 1990s onwards. Following significant questions raised in Parliament, by the media and other stakeholders, an independent review panel was established under Baroness Neuberger in 2013 to investigate the LCP. The findings of the panel were published as More Care Less Pathway: a Review of the Liverpool Care Pathway identifying significant failings in the delivery of the LCP thus leading to it being phased out some six months later. Rather than being euthanasia through the backdoor, many of the criticisms of the LCP and its poor implementation are indicative of poor communication, limited knowledge of the dying process and a paucity of death education.