In the Face of Death: Professionals Who Care for the Dying and the Bereaved (Springer Series on Death and Suicide)

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“”Danai Papadatou?[presents] an approach of Relational Care, care based on an understanding of relationships, that should be essential reading?.[S]he writes in an engaging and non-technical language, and manages to convey complex ideas in a manner that is accessible to all.””

–Colin Murray Parkes, OBE, MD, FRCPsych
President, Cruse: Bereavement Care
(From the Foreword)

?[A] wonderful contribution to the literature on caregiving and her well thought out ideas about relational caregiving are on the cutting edge. Congratulations.?

— Lynne Ann DeSpelder
CoAuthor, “The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying, 8th edition”

“”This is no ordinary academic textbook. It is nothing short of a masterpiece in which Papadatou provides the field of death, dying and bereavement with invaluable and constructive insights into the world of caring for the dying and bereaved.””–Grief Matters

“”This is a fascinating book, applying important theoretical models?in order to describe and speculate about how professionals manage to work in an environment where suffering and grief are constantly present. This is an important and substantial addition to the mostly self-help literature about self-care for caregivers.””–Doody’s Medical Reviews

“In the Face of Death” explores the experiences of health care professionals who care for the seriously ill, the dying, and the bereaved. In this book, Danai Papadatou offers a practical approach to caregiving, as well as a breadth and depth of insight into both the patient’s and the caregiver’s responses to death.

The author discusses the issues and challenges health care professionals face when treating dying and bereaved patients. Topics include: compassion fatigue, the inevitability of suffering and the potential for growth, suffering in the workplace, team functioning in death situations, and team resilience.

The main themes are:
The Caring Relationship focuses on the relationship between the care provider and the person who is dying or grieving, and proposes a new, relationship-based model of care The Care Provider in Death Situations addresses the health professional’s personal responses to death, using a model that illustrates the grieving process of the health professional The Team in the Face of Death provides recommendations for effective, interdisciplinary care services that support dying or bereaved patients as well as the health care provider “

Danai Papadatou, PhD is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Faculty of Nursing of the University of Athens. Her clinical experience, research interests and publications focus mostly on issues related to pediatric palliative care, bereavement support, and health care providers’ responses to the death of their patients. Her work is known internationally through her publications, presentations at scientific meetings, and active involvement in international work groups and societies. She has organized several conferences and symposia and along with her father Costas Papadatos organized in 1989, the 1st International Conference on Children and Death and subsequently edited the book “Children and Death” (1991). She has received an award from Children’s Hospice International (1989), and the ‘Death Educator Award’ by the Association for Death Education and Counseling (2001). She had the honor to serve from 1999 to 2004 as chair of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement, an organization of leaders in the field of thanatology. Dr. Papadatou is also the founder and president of a Greek non profit organization (“Merimna”) which provides services to children and families who are coping with illness and death experiences, offers training to professionals who support seriously ill and bereaved children and adolescents, organizes psychosocial interventions in disaster situations, and sensitizes the Greek public on issues related to death and dying.