ABSTRACT
Aging brings with it significant changes in one’s family, social relationships, and lifestyle. Among those changes is the inevitable loss through death of a valued elderly family member. Therefore, a problem confronting all elderly persons and their families is the process of death and dying, which is an integral part of an individual’s life cycle (McGoldrick & Walsh, 1999). Until recent years, however, the training of social workers and other mental health practitioners has included virtually no consideration of the knowledge and skills needed to relate competently and effectively to clients who fear facing, desire to face, or are facing, completion of the life cycle. Clinicians who themselves experience difficulty addressing problems associated with death and dying are not likely to be capable of delivering sensitive and competent services. The problem is compounded when culturally competent services need to be provided because such services require knowledge of diverse customs, characteristics, and beliefs. Furthermore, despite the problem’s growing significance, due in part to the projected rapid growth of individuals ages sixty-five years and older, social scientists have produced only a meager literature examining the conditions and needs of individuals who are approaching the end of their lives. Similarly lacking has been the failure of the professional literature to address adequately the fact that the elderly are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse (Davey, Murphy, & Price, 2000; Jackson, Chatters, & Taylor, 1993).
