Death+and+Psychology

=Death and Psychology of Orphans= Homepage Bottom page = =



__Introduction__
I lost my parents in an accident, they were on their way to my high school graduation, and my whole life fell apart. Firstly, I most definitely didn’t lose my parents but know who did? Orphans. Journalist Ironside  says “The death of one parent is tough. But when the second parent dies, the world turns upside down. You are no longer the younger generation and must confront your mortality” (**1**). Research has shown that people are far more badly hit when the surviving parent dies because once you become an orphan, you have to suffer not only the grief of losing a parent but must also completely reassess your life and your role in it (**2)**. The second parent's death makes matters worse and so often comes at a time when our own lives are beset with difficulties. It may coincide with the onset of middle-age or the menopause, and perhaps children leaving home. With the death, too, may come the sudden and unwelcome realization that we can no longer put things off "until we are grown up." Now we are the grown-ups; in our family, indeed, we may even have become (horror of horrors) the older generation. And we have to confront one very unpleasant fact: our mortality.

Nowadays little incidents happen and a huge number of people become orphans; it’s like one’s life goes from a dream to an African movie. What if I lost my parents right now, how will I cope? All these similar thoughts brought me to this question. Do Orphans deal with death in a wrong or efficient way, and does the fact that they are kids affect this answer? I guess death is not a good friend after all; it is more of a bad influence. After the death of a parent, a lot is affected, most especially the child’s life. The effect refers to the consequences of an action, meaning the things that arise due to the death of parents. The issue on the impact of death on orphans is very biased. Researcher think of mental effects more than others though research has shown that they are more psychological effects on orphans. (**3**)



==__ Psychological Effects __== When talking about the effects of the death of parents, an important thing to discuss is the cause of one's parent death determines how they are affected. It could be an accident, illness or just a natural death, regardless they all affect the children whose parents are involved. Sengendo and Nambi speak on the psychological effects and stress the fact that enough is not being done for orphan children and studies tend to ignore the psychological impacts. They said that adopting parents and school's teachers are unable to help because they do not understand the problem and lack the information they need to provide emotional support. (**4**) Salifu and Nceba further extend the argument and points out that based on his research, parental loss and orphanage placement can be stressful and can negatively affect the psychological well-being of children. (**3**) However Mutiso's study shows that 16.5% of kids in a normal orphanage home suffers from mental illness, despite the 83.5% that suffers from psychological effects, he still regarded mental illness as a more important effect. (**5**). Because more attention is paid to mental disorders, people fail to see the consequences of psychological effects such as stress, depression, anxiety, etc. In the book “Orphans,” they are three orphans who all suffer from stress, but two in particular who suffer from all these three (**6**). The first orphan is a girl who was born with no parents at all. One would say she was too young to know them and would easily get over people she never met, but till the end of the book, she still mourns a father who was sent to a Nazi concentration camp, never to return. She still mourned a man she never met, to me that is way worse than knowing them personally. The second orphan is a good example of what happens when psychological effects are taken for granted. She suffers from a rare disease and seems to be living in a cursed house, but she speaks thirteen languages and moves with ease between cultures, perhaps always running away from herself. Though some may argue that losing a parent at a young age could lead to mental disorders in adulthood among people who had lost a parent before the age of 16” (**7**).



__Suicide__
Another impact of the parental loss is suicide by off springs, thanks to the absence of parental love and affection mixed with thoughts of loneliness in the hope that it may lead them back to their parents (**8**). The inappropriate study of these effects is what leads to mental illness. If the studies are researched well, and solutions and advice carried out, the psychological effects won’t build up to mental effects. For example, if depression is treated on time, it won’t lead to thoughts of suicide before suicide itself. Being aware of the situation is one thing and doing something about it is another. What are workable solutions to psychological effects? We can’t stop the death of a parent, but we could reduce the negative effects it has on their offspring. According to Fearnley.R, the answers to things like this have to do with taking children along when it comes to the loss of their loved one and making them aware of situations like this; it makes it easier for them to handle and also helps in preparations for their future. (**9**) In contrast, Brooten and JoAnne states death brings about fear in kids, which is true as his research proved so, but his research was done with kids that experienced the death of a loved one before being told about death. (**10**)



What can be done?
Many more opinions and suggestions arise when it comes to the “what to do?” Some good, some bad, some personal, etc. Just to show how difficult it is to deal with death, Chan Wallace Chi Ho, et al., he lets us know what even the nurses, doctors, therapist, and other professions cope with the death of their patients, talk less of when it’s a family member. (**2**) Most of these professions have ways of dealing with their griefs. Buchholz further emphasizes the fact that people deal with grief in different ways. It narrows the analysis of the death of parents and tells us why it is important to help children grief. (**11**) This is the point where you put yourself in the shoes of orphans if you were an orphan, how would you want to be approached or how would you expect the support you will get? If you were a parent and you lost your life today, how do you want your kids to be treated? The psychological effects has been explained, now it’s your turn to take action. These are things we should consider while talking about solutions and how to effectively put them into action. Other effects like physical, financial, etc. haven’t been looked into. Most times when kids that are physically unstable or have a disorder lose their parents, every other person starts taking them for granted because they don’t care as much. When some kids lose their parents, relatives take over their parent’s properties and leave them with nothing while still maltreating them. Some parents die of HIV/AIDS, leaving their child which they transferred the disease to alone, this leads to spread or early death because the right treatments are not given. They are so much we could do, with so little. We could write letters to our government; we could let teachers be aware of what to do and how to help orphaned students. Chadwick emphasizes that it should be studied in schools as an actual course which people would earn credits for attending classes(**12**). Although Barret believes that kids should be spoken to in regards to matters of death, he was entirely against the teaching about death in school idea stating that they are laid down procedures (**13**), we could advise parents that adopt on how to support the adopted child emotionally. More research could be done, and social media could transfer such information in a click globally. Though they are kids, orphans are just as affected concerning death as we are, if not more, the only people that loved them from birth are gone, but we are all human. We should watch out for them.

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References

 * 1) ==== Ironside, Virginia. "Suddenly, I was an orphan …" 1996. []====
 * 2) ==== Chan, Wallace Chi Ho, et al. "Impact of Death Work on Self: Existential and Emotional Challenges and Coping of Palliative Care Professionals." 2016, pp. 33-41. doi:10.1093/hsw/hlv077. ====
 * 3) ====Salifu Yendork, J et al. "Stress, Coping and Quality of Life: An Exploratory Study of the Psychological Well-Being of Ghanaian Orphans Placed in Orphanages.". 2014, pp. 28-37. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth. ====
 * 4) ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sengendo J, Nambi J. The psychological effect of orphanhood: a study of orphans in Rakai district. 1997, pp. 105-24. Print. ====
 * 5) ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mutiso, Victoria N., et al. "Epidemiological Patterns and Correlates of Mental Disorders among Orphans and Vulnerable Children under Institutional Care." 2017, pp. 65-75.  doi:10.1007/s00127-016-1291-7.  ====
 * 6) ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Laroche, Hadrien, et al. Orphans. 2014. Print. ====
 * 7) ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Stikkelbroek, Yvonne, et al. "Parental Death during Childhood and Psychopathology in Adulthood." 2012, pp. 516-520. Print. ====
 * 8) ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jeon, Hong Jin, et al. "Childhood Parental Death and Lifetime Suicide Attempt of the Opposite-Gender Offspring in a Nationwide Community Sample of Korea//."// 2013, pp. 598-610. doi:10.1111/sltb.12042. ====
 * 9) ====  Fearnley, R. "Death of a Parent and the Children's Experience: Don't Ignore the Elephant in the Room." 2010, pp. 450-459. Print.  ====
 * 10) ====Brooten, Dorothy et al. "School-Aged Children's Experiences 7 and 13 Months Following a Sibling's Death." 2017, pp. 1112-1123. EBSCO//host//, doi:10.1007/s10826-016-0647-7.====
 * 11) ====<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Buchholz, Ester S. "Handling Grief: A Doctor's Remedy for Unpreventable Loss." 2004, pp. 393-395.doi:10.1037/0002-9432.74.3.393. ====
 * 12) ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chadwick, Ann. Talking about Death and Bereavement in School: How to Help Children Aged 4 to 11 to Feel Supported and Understood. 2012. Print. ====
 * 13) ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Barrett, Angela. "HOW to TALK to KIDS about Death." 2015, pp. 64-66. Print. ====