Book Title: Journey's End: Death, Dying and the End of Life
Authors: Victoria Brewster & Julie Saeger Nierenberg
Category: Adult Non-Fiction; 558 pages
While we know that dying is simply a part of life--that knowledge does not make the reality any less harsh. Today, we have the honor of featuring Journey's End in our book spotlight and in sharing a guest post from one of the book's authors--as she discusses her experiences in losing aging clients. Readers should share in Victoria Brewster's insights, learn about this new book--and enter for a chance to win a copy of the book in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.
While we know that dying is simply a part of life--that knowledge does not make the reality any less harsh. Today, we have the honor of featuring Journey's End in our book spotlight and in sharing a guest post from one of the book's authors--as she discusses her experiences in losing aging clients. Readers should share in Victoria Brewster's insights, learn about this new book--and enter for a chance to win a copy of the book in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.
Death of Clients: What I Have Learned
By Victoria Brewster, MSW
I have had the privilege of working with seniors/older adults for over seventeen years as a case manager and group facilitator. Before I started working with older adults, I had very little knowledge of seniors and their needs. My previous work experience had been with youth and families, and I certainly had no experience in the area of death with clients. My death experience was that of family members.
I remember the first day I volunteered with a social worker who was facilitating a group specifically for Holocaust Survivors. Would they like me? Would they accept me? Would they ask me if I was Jewish or not, and if they did, would they mind that I had converted? Could I do this?
Six months later I was hired as a case manager to work with older adults and co-facilitator of the group that was specifically for Holocaust Survivors.
The group members and I have been through quite a bit together over the years. They saw me pregnant with both my kids; they have met them both a few times over the years. They have shared the joyful times in their lives of grandchildren and great-grandchildren born, bar and bat mitzvahs, marriages, and anniversaries with me, but we have also shared and journeyed together through death: death of their family members and friends, death of fellow group members, and the death of my family members.
When I first started with this group, membership was close to sixty Holocaust Survivors attending weekly. Seventeen years later, membership is around twenty-five to thirty. Many have left because of health reasons, moving to residences or out of the city, and many have died.
I have attended more than my share of client funerals. I have visited clients in the hospital if they were open to it when they were ill and/or palliative. I have written many condolence cards to clients’ family members.
At the same time death is happening, I realize this group has taught me so much. Think of all they have witnessed and lived through during the Holocaust and how many family and friends they lost to death-how much death they witnessed and how their lives were, and are, forever changed. They survived horrible situations, whether in ghettos, work camps, death camps, in Russia, in hiding, and some were on death marches: but they left Europe to come to Canada to start over, to raise families, and to be a part of Canadian society. They had hope.
They, Holocaust Survivors, have not let their war experiences define them. They have taught me acceptance, love, hope, to move on with your life, and to advocate for those less fortunate; and for that, I am forever grateful.
About the Book
n Journey's End, we write about death, dying, and end of life issues. We attempt to define and describe these real-life circumstances, and we discuss ways to proactively deal with them. Multiple personal and professional perspectives provide valuable insights.
What is dying like for dying persons, for loved ones, and for those who lend support in the process? Each experience will have unique qualities. Everyone dies in his own way, on his own schedule. While we explore the dying process, we make no assumptions about how any particular death will unfold.
Grief and bereavement support, training tools, and educational resources are included.
Meet the Authors
Victoria has a master of social work degree. She has worked as a case manager with older adults for the past seventeen years and as a group facilitator. Her past work experience was as a therapist with children and families, and as a case manager for adults with mental health issues. She just launched a consulting business, NorthernMSW to focus on end of life issues, planning, training, and advocacy, along with memoir writing and life legacy writing.
Julie was inspired equally by her professional backgrounds as a biomedical researcher and long time educator. Julie values open and lively discussions based on interview and research findings, trends in health and wellness, and exciting new modalities of treatment and professional education. She believes it will be through such discussions that we will create new and more satisfying cultural paradigms within which we may live all the days of our lives with dignity and quality of care.
Connect with the authors: Website ~ Facebook
Enter the Giveaway
Ends Sept 30
2 Comments
Thank you so much for featuring our book in your book tour. We hope it will be interesting and helpful to many readers.
ReplyDeleteJulie Saeger Nierenberg
Great books deserve MANY readers!
ReplyDelete