Facing Terminal Illness: A Guide for Helping Professionals
by Satir Institute of the Southeast
Virginia Satir's model for the process of change is illustrated in this video through the story of a terminally ill patient and the hospice workers who support her through the process of dying.
Virginia Satir is known for the model she developed to explain the process of change. Satir believed that all change involves six stages, ranging from the entrance of a foreign element into one's status quo to ultimate growth and learning. Facing Terminal Illness: A Guide for Helping Professionals uses Satir's change model to explain the experiences of a terminally ill woman, Debbie Ellington, and several hospice workers.

The video presents Debbie as she tells her story of being diagnosed with terminal cancer. She discusses her difficult reaction to this diagnosis and the emotional and physical pain she began to experience. Satir's "foreign element" and "chaos" stages are used to explain the introduction of Debbie's very difficult life change.

The video also presents the process of change from the point of view of the hospice workers. Several staff members talk about their own experiences working with such emotional cases, and how they move through the stages of Satir's change model along with their patients. They emphasize the importance of self-care and supporting one another in order to be able to best help their patients.

The video covers all six stages of Satir's change model and illustrates how the model, like all change, cycles again and again through people's lives.
In Depth
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If you want to understand the experiences of hospice patients and workers, this video provides a straightforward account. It will also give you insight into Virginia Satir's change model, which can be applied to any of your cases. Helping professionals will learn how to support their terminally ill patients as they face their own death, as well as how to care for themselves when working with such emotional cases.

From watching this video, you will:
  • Learn the stages of Virginia Satir's change model as explained through the case of a terminally ill patient.
  • Understand how helping professionals can support terminally ill patients and some of the commonalities underlying their experiences.
  • Consider forms of self-care and coworker support for hospice workers.

Length of video: 00:22:03

English subtitles available

Group ISBN-10 #: 1-60124-495-9

Group ISBN-13 #: 978-1-60124-495-6

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