Mutual Developmental Benefits for Teen Volunteers and Persons at the End of Life
| Autor: | Anna L. Romer |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2001 |
| Předmět: |
business.industry
media_common.quotation_subject Sign (semiotics) Identity (social science) General Medicine Public relations Existentialism Developmental psychology Social group Interpersonal relationship Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine Alliance Developmental stage theories Psychological resilience Psychology business General Nursing media_common |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Palliative Medicine. 4:113-116 |
| ISSN: | 1557-7740 1096-6218 |
| DOI: | 10.1089/109662101300052167 |
| Popis: | 113 THE AGE-OLD QUESTIONS posed by Paul Gauguin in his 1897 masterpiece depicting the life cycle, “D’ou venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Ou allons-nous?” [Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?], are particularly compelling for two groups of people: adolescents and those facing the end of their lives. Adolescents are moving out of childhood and into the wider world of adulthood with the key task of developing an identity. While family continues to be important, peers and the values of the larger society become equally salient as adolescents work to find their place in that society. For a person nearing the end of life, at a time when the larger society has no commonly held answers to these questions, the questions themselves can regain personal urgency. Given these existential and developmental challenges, bringing individuals from these two groups together for companionship can offer an opportunity for growth and discovery on many levels. In this issue, we are featuring The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast’s Hospice Teen Volunteer Program, which recruits teens to support the activities of the hospice in a variety of ways, including matching teens with patients near the end of life for companionship, practical help, and conducting life reviews. Sandra Mahood and other staff at The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in Pinellas County, Florida, have collaborated with teachers and administrators at area high schools to create opportunities for service-learning through the hospice’s programs. Sandra Mahood describes the genesis of that program, which now has 250 adolescent volunteers who serve in nursing homes and the hospice residences or mentor children who have experienced a loss. They also do office work and participate in fund-raising events. Ms. Mahood reflects on the particular conditions that have led to this program’s growth, as well as what sustains it, and the elements that others need to consider when planning intergenerational hospice volunteer efforts. Such efforts are born out of the pragmatic recognition of the resilience and durability of the grandparent-grandchild alliance as well as a sense that these two groups have untapped talents that could be mined for their mutual benefit. Developmental psychology offers a theoretical framework that can inform efforts to train adolescents to work with people at the end of their lives. If we assume, as recent developmental theory does,1–3 that interdependence among people is the goal of healthy development—rather than a caricature of independence that devalues relationships and any sign of vulnerability—it makes room for recognizing how much people who are dying may have to offer others. This framework expands the one-dimensional image of dying patients as those who are solely the recipients of care. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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