Death Awareness Movement

The death awareness movement refers to a somewhat amorphous yet interconnected network of individuals, organizations, and groups and includes scholars, advocates, and counselors. It encompasses self-help networks like The Compassionate Friends and professional associations such as the Association for Death Education and Counseling; the American Academy of Bereavement; the International Work Group on Dying, Death and Bereavement; and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization as well as their members, affiliations, and regional and state associations. Most hospices and palliative care units would identify with it, as would many funeral service organizations. Foundations such as the Hospice Foundation of America are involved as are varied institutes and interorganizational committees and task forces. Many larger organizations, with far broader and diffuse memberships and goals, may focus some attention on end-of-life issues and research or education on dying and death. For example, the American Psychological Association has a specialized task force on end-oflife issues. While the individuals involved may contribute to a variety of professional journals, there are a number of scholarly journals (e.g., Omega, Death Studies, andLoss, Grief & Care) as well as newsletters (e.g., Journeys, Thanatos, and The Forum) that focus exclusively on issues of dying, death, and loss.

In addition, the movement is international in scope. Many nations outside the United States and Canada have similar organizations. For example, the National Association for Loss and Grief serves Australia and New Zealand. The journal Mortality is published in the United Kingdom while Grief Matters hails from Australia.

The movement hosts teleconferences, symposia, conferences, workshops, and trainings and publishes a plethora of literature annually that ranges in audience from children to adults and from inspirational to self-help to serious clinical or scholarly work. This amorphous and far-reaching network—in reality a social movement—shares a common focus though not necessarily common goals, models, or methods. That focus is dying, death, and bereavement.

Roots of the Death Awareness Movement

The roots of the death awareness movement are diverse. Herman Feifel offered a seminar on death in the 1956 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association that later led to his landmark book, The Meaning of Death. Though there had been some significant theoretical and empirical studies prior to that work (by Sigmund Freud in 1917 and a generation later by E. Lindemann in 1944), Feifel's pioneering efforts are often regarded as the beginnings of a sustained academic study of death. The 1969 publication of Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying increased public awareness of death. Throughout this period, a number of colleges began to develop and offer courses related to death and dying. These courses were housed in a number of different departments, including nursing, sociology, psychology, health education, or religious studies.

Death education continues to be consolidating. In addition to developing and offering courses, colleges and universities are now developing majors, certificates, and even master's degrees in grief counseling or thanatology. The Association of Death Education and Counseling has reinstated an earlier process for certifying death educators and grief counselors. Already, some members representing colleges and universities that have formalized programs have begun to discuss accreditation. These programs have been supplemented by academic centers such as the Center for Death Education and Research at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. Though this growth is impressive, recent events continue to suggest the tenuous nature of such [Page 301]courses in the curriculum of universities and colleges. Many of these courses, programs, and centers are still tied to individuals rather than to departments or colleges. When a professor retires, the course or even the program may be retired as well.

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