Receiving catastrophic news

Category: Coaching Notes

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross was a doctor in Switzerland who spent a lot of time with dying people. She wrote a book called On Death and Dying which included a cycle of emotional states that has come to be referred to as the Grief Cycle.

In fact this is a misinterpretation of what she actually said. Although she worked with terminally ill people, her model was not about grieving but about receiving catastrophic news. It was an attempt to summarise what she had learned from dying patients in terms of coping mechanisms at the time of a terminal illness. It is arguable that it represents the stages that are needed before grieving can begin.

However, as with redundancy, there are many other situations in which people receive news that can seem catastrophic. The first stage of major change is often the announcement. If there has not been an effective programme to prepare people for the news – and even if there has been – major announcements can often lead to a sense of loss – and to grieving.

• A change of circumstance of any kind produces a loss of some kind which will produce a grief reaction.


• The intensity of the grief reaction is a function of how the change-produced loss is perceived. If the loss is not perceived as significant, the grief reaction will be minimal or barely felt.


• Significant grief responses which go unresolved can lead to mental, physical and sociological problems.

So, whether it is redundancy, a take-over, reorganisation or whatever, there are occasions when an understanding of the five-stage process will help move more quickly to dealing with the situation.

Here are the five stages of the Kübler-Ross Grief Cycle and some suggested responses:

• Any change of circumstance can cause us to go through this process


• We don't have to go through the stages in sequence


• We can go through them over different time periods – a few minutes to several years


• The intensity and duration of the reaction depends on how significant the change-produced loss is perceived.

When the five stages have been completed, it is then appropriate to start to deal with the situation.

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  On Grief and Grieving, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
  


• Beware the 5 Stages of "Grief"


• The Kübler-Ross grief cycle