[Nursing Experience Applying a Bereavement Counseling Model on an Elderly Patient With Depression]

Grief counseling is an effective treatment for those who have experienced a loss. In this case study, therapeutic communication was used as part of a nursing intervention to assist an elderly patient with depression to overcome grief and continue with life. The stage-based Four Tasks of Mourning proposed by William Worden were employed. These tasks include: (1) accepting the reality of the loss; (2) working through the pain of grief; (3) adjusting to a new environment without the deceased; and (4) focusing attention on other relationships. The nursing intervention occurred between December 14, 2015 and February 3, 2016. During this period, the author offered grief counseling to help the subject endure the loss of their kin, express their grief and pain, overcome difficulties in making adjustments, and move on from the loss by developing new life goals. The subject eventually acknowledged the irreversibility of what had happened and accepted the death through self-reacceptance and the support of friends and family. The patient was thus able to overcome his grief-induced behavior patterns, and rekindle his hopes for life and existing relationships. Therefore, the author recommends that nursing personnel assess carefully the reactions of elderly patients with depression to loss and provide adequate grief counseling that helps them fulfill the tasks of mourning.