The Processes Of Death And Dying

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Most of us fear death whether we acknowledge it or not. It’s never easy to contemplate death, whether it’s our own experience or that of a loved one. Consequently, death is a natural part of every culture, it is unique in the extent of how dying is viewed. For this week’s assignment, I was asked to identify and explain some of the principal features of death-related encounters also, identify and explain the six factors that are associated with these changes. Some principles that feature death-related encounters are death rates, average life expectance, cause of death, death trajectories, and location of death.

According to our textbook death rates are determined by choosing a specific group of people and dividing the number of people in the group who die during a particular period of time by the total population of the group (Corr & Corr, 2013). There is only one way to determine death rates and that is if one has access to demographic data. The demographic data locates births, deaths, and census records. In 2007 the total numbers of death were 2,813,503 with the death rate of 863.8 deaths per 100,000 population which indicates the life expectancies to be 78.6 years (Services, 2017).

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An average life expectancy is related closely to death rates. Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years that a group of people will live (Corr & Corr, 2013). The average life expectancy rapidly increased in the United States during the 20th century due to the major decrease in the number of deaths that occurred during the earlier years of life. Whenever more citizens survive birth, infancy, and childhood the life expectancy for the population will rise.

The cause of death is the third factor in death-related encounters. Many causes of deaths from infectious or infectious diseases. Infectious diseases can be transmitted from person to person. For example, as of right now, in the United State, we have a pandemic going on because of COVID-19 and it is causing many individuals to become very ill resulting in death. In earlier years cultures experiences epidemics of some diseases called influenza, scarlet fever, measles, smallpox, and tuberculosis. Communicable diseases are accompanied by diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, headache, fever, and muscle aches these can usually be observable symptoms. Society today consists of the largest numbers of death resulted from ageing, lifestyle, environment, and the wearing of body organs (Corr & Corr, 2013). There are four leading causes of death in the United States which include; heart disease, cancers, cerebrovascular diseases, and COPD.

Dying Trajectories are associated with different causes and patterns of dying. The differences between the two are marked by duration and shape. Duration refers to the time involved between the onset of dying and the arrival of death and patterns refers to an almost instantaneous onset of death (Corr & Corr, 2013). For example, cancers are fatal, and some may not involve much pain or discomfort and can be cured through interventions. Successful interventions may restore a long quality life while other interventions may only slow the progress of the degenerative disease of the dying person. The location of death can happen anywhere such as in a hospital, at home, medical centres or a long-term care facility.

There are six factors that are associated with how the United States features about death-related encounters have changed which are industrialization, public health measures, preventative care, modern cure-oriented medicine, nature of contemporary families and lifestyles. The first major factor in reducing death rates was industrialization. It helped lead to improvements in the environment and standard of living. Industrialization developed a more effective way of communication which changed patterns of encounters of death. For instance, if a farm was to fail in one place, it can be reported to people in other areas helping get surpluses from somewhere else. The second major factor in reducing death rates was public health measures. For instance, threats from communicable diseases were reduced with a better understanding of how they were transmitted. Individuals with such diseases were led to quarantine making improvements in sanitation. The third major factor in reducing death rates was preventive health care. A technique that is most evident is vaccination where an individual can be infected in a controlled way with an illness. The purpose of the vaccinations is to build an individual’s immune system to defend attacks by the illness. The fourth major factor in reducing death rates was modern cure-oriented medicine. Medicine is a very important factor in reducing death rates. Modern medicine helped improve the overall health of individuals and expanded the average life expectancy. The fifth major factor in reducing death rates was the nature of contemporary families. Large families had members stay at home to help take part in caring for the ill, dying, and the dead. Finally, the sixth factor in reducing death rates was the lifestyle. The way we live our lives has a direct influence on how and when we die. For example, if you’re using tobacco products it is very harmful to your lungs and can cause bronchial cancer leading to death.  

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