The effect of an experiential death and dying awareness workshop on expressed anxiety toward death

Abstract

Volunteers from churches in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area participated in a 10 to 12 hour experiential death education workshop. The program emphasized basic communication skills in exploring death and dying issues. Satir’s communication patterns were used in a simulated family planning event; participants were encouraged to write in a journal after each exercise; directed fantasy explored the development in life of the individual's way of coping with loss; a role play used birth order and it's effects when a parent has a terminal illness; and guided imagery was used to explore the participant's death and funeral.

The workshop did not lower death anxiety in the 17 females and six males (aged 35-66) who participated. There was no significant difference when comparison was made on the pre- and post-Templer Death Anxiety Scale (TDAS) change scores between those participants in the program and the control group, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Northern Virginia Graduate Center students, who did not participate. Mean scores on TDAS were within the normal range of means for subjects established by Templer and Ruff. Participants stated that interactions which facilitated a self-discovery process had met a need for them