Loss and Grief in Dementia

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Glossary
GLOSSARY Of teRmS
Loss:
Grief:
Anticipatory Loss:
Ambiguous Loss:
Complicated grief:
Disenfranchised Grief:
Grieving Style:
Grief work:
Loss is the experience of being without something or someone that is
of significance to a person (1).
Is the natural process of reaction and adjustment to loss and change
in a person’s life (Adapted from (1)).
Anticipatory loss refers to losses which we anticipate will happen in
the future in the context of a life-limiting illness (2).
Ambiguous loss occurs when the person with dementia is physically
present but psychologically or emotionally altered in some way (3).
Complicated grief is a specific diagnosis which is made when a person
gets ‘stuck in their grief’ and grief has a pervasive impact on their ability
to function over a long period of time. CG can be diagnosed following
a thorough clinical assessment as early as six months’ postbereavement
(4). CG affects 2-3% of the population but this rate may
be as high as 20% for family carers of people with dementia (5,6).
Disenfranchised grief is a ‘hidden’ grief. This happens when losses
are not appreciated/recognised or understood by others and this
means that losses are not openly acknowledged or socially
sanctioned/ shared (7).
Grieving style refers to how a person experiences their loss internally
and how they express their loss to the outside world. There are three
major types of grieving style used in this document – intuitive,
instrumental and blended (8).
This is the intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual effort of
adaptation that is required after any personally significant loss/
change (9).
Grief surge: A grief surge is a sudden feeling of being overwhelmed by grief (10).
Compassion fatigue:
Stress:
This refers to physical, emotional and/or spiritual exhaustion where
healthcare staff lose their ability to provide the same level of
compassion and care to people and their families as they had
previously (11).
Is the pressure we encounter in our daily lives. Stress can be positive
or negative. We can thrive on positive stress but negative stress can
be a threat to our physical and mental health (12).
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Loss and Grief in Dementia