La tanatología y el proceso de duelo ante el fallecimiento de un hijo/a

Abstract

In the course of our lives, it is inevitable to face the death of loved ones. However, for parents the experience of losing one of their sons or daughters becomes evident as an exceptionally deep and heartbreaking pain, although the prospect of death is a shared reality, the intensity of suffering that accompanies the departure of a child is unparalleled, giving rise to a host of emotional, social, physical and spiritual complications. In this context, thanatology is presented as the science that addresses life and death, providing support both to those facing terminal illness and to family members who have experienced a significant loss. These losses, by their nature, trigger grief processes and, according to the principles of thanatology, these must be approached in a holistic and integral manner. Therefore, the professional begins his intervention, establishing as an objective to guide people towards the experience of a healthy grief, taking into account the inherent complexity of the situation. The research aims to determine the relationship between thanatology and the grieving process after the death of a child, the study is exploratory, descriptive and correlational. The desired findings were obtained by means of a mixed approach methodology. For the quantitative part, a questionnaire measuring knowledge in thanatology was elaborated, composed of 20 items that were subsequently applied to 44 professionals in the social and health areas, and a validated instrument called the Revised Texas Inventory of Grief (RTIG) was also used, applied to 37 parents who had lost a child. On the other hand, for the qualitative part, we worked with 4 key informants, who voluntarily participated in the research by sharing their experiences after the loss of their child. Finally, as an intervention proposal, a Social Project and a Manual were developed, with an approach from the area of social work, which consists of an operational plan of activities that allows minimizing the effects in the biopsychosocial area of the parents in this difficult situation