Play of children living with HIV/AIDS in a low-resourced setting: Perspectives of caregivers

Background Although play is viewed as a childhood occupation that is spontaneous, it can be limited in children with HIV/AIDS. This study explored the perspectives of caregivers from Zimbabwe on the play of children with HIV/AIDS. Methodology A descriptive qualitative research approach was used to explore the perceptions of caregivers on play of children living with HIV/AIDS. Fifteen caregivers of children aged 4–9 years diagnosed with HIV/AIDS were purposively sampled. Two interviews were carried out with each of the caregivers. Findings were analysed thematically. Findings Four major themes were generated from the study: ‘Ubuntu is no more’, ‘Survival is primary (chikuru kurarama)’, ‘Play affirms that my child is still like other children’ and ‘More is required for this child’. Although issues of survival were paramount, caregivers were able to highlight the importance of play in affirming childhood, identifying the specific needs for play of children with HIV/AIDS. Conclusion and Significance Play, like all other human occupation, is contextually situated. Poverty and health status are key in shaping how families prioritise play. However, the ability to play for a child with HIV/AIDS also seems to mitigate stigma and may disrupt the ‘HIV is death’ narrative.

When Deaths Are Dehumanized: Deathcare During COVID-19 as a Public Value Failure

The COVID-19 pandemic, which is still gripping the world, brought death front and center into many people’s lives. In the United States, however, some of the deaths were treated as “more tragic” than others given someone’s economic use value coupled with dehumanizing language. Using Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, this is understood as a public values failure when economic productivity eclipses public health and humanity. Introducing a conceptual framework, this article explores this death narrative and implores public administrators to think about death management in a humane framing.

Death Narrative in 19th-Century China: How Did Newspapers Frame Death and Dying

This study explored the death narrative in the late Qing dynasty as expressed in Chinese newspapers in the 19th century. Using textual analysis, this study identified three themes regarding death and dying during this period: euphemism of death, definition of “good death,” and Western influence on the death narrative. The study results of death narrative in the 19th century indicate the historical root of perception of death among the current Chinese people, which could help the development of a culturally sensitive hospice services for Chinese people in China and other countries by suggesting language use, patients approaching, and mental health intervention for the service providers and policy makers.

Organ Donation at the End of Life: Experiences From the 3 Wishes Project

Purpose: The 3 Wishes Project (3WP) promotes holistic end-of-life care in the intensive care unit (ICU) to honor dying patients, support families, and encourage clinician compassion. Organ donation is a wish that is sometimes made by, or on behalf of, critically ill patients. Our objective was to describe the interface between the 3WP and organ donation as experienced by families, clinicians, and organ donation coordinators. Methods: In a multicenter evaluation of the 3WP in 4 Canadian ICUs, we conducted a thematic analysis of transcripts from interviews and focus groups with clinicians, organ donation coordinators, and families of dying or died patients for whom donation was considered. Results: We analyzed transcripts from 26 interviews and 2 focus groups with 18 family members, 17 clinicians, and 6 organ donation coordinators. The central theme describes the mutual goals of the 3WP and organ donation—emphasizing personhood and agency across the temporal continuum of care. During family decision-making, conversations encouraged by the 3WP can facilitate preliminary discussions about donation. During preparation for donation, memory-making activities supported by the 3WP redirect focus toward personhood. During postmortem family care, the 3WP supports families, including when donation is unsuccessful, and highlights aspirational pursuits of donation while encouraging reflections on other fulfilled wishes. Conclusions: Organ donation and the 3WP provide complementary opportunities to engage in value-based conversations during the dying process. The shared values of these programs may help to incorporate organ donation and death into a person’s life narrative and incorporate new life into a person’s death narrative.

DEATH NARRATIVE IN 19TH-CENTURY CHINA: HOW DID NEWSPAPERS FRAME DEATH AND DYING?

This study explored the death narrative in the late Qin dynasty as expressed in Chinese newspapers in the 19th century. Using textual analysis to analyze the 646 pieces of news containing death-related topics, this study revealed the discourse regarding death and dying during this period can be understood at three levels: (a) euphemism of death: the language of death and its relationship with power and social hierarchy; (b)definition of “good death”: including preferences for location, cause, and experiences of death and dying; and (c) Western influence on the death narrative: missionaries’ efforts to incorporate Catholic and Chinese traditions to attract more believers. This paper argues that the current Chinese people’s perception of death is inherited and evolved from those historical roots, which has practical implications for the systematic development of hospice care in China. Suggestions include changing the language used in the hospice policy, emphasizing the importance of confidentiality in home-based hospice programs, and building a hospice system based on public perceptions of so-called “good death” while advocating for individualized definitions of this concept.

Death of the Slow-Cooker or #CROCK-POTISINNOCENT? This Is Us, Parasocial Grief, and the Crock-Pot Crisis

Even though viewers understand that a television show is fictional, they can still mourn the demise of their favorite characters. This fictional grief became apparent with the on-screen death of the character Jack in the program This Is Us. The current study analyzed the death narrative and perceived responsibility in first and second seasons of This Is Us, paired with the online responses posted to social media and the short promotional video between the show and Crock-Pot. Findings suggest that fans experienced and expressed parasocial grief for Jack’s death on social media, attributing blame to the Crock-Pot brand. In turn, the company’s tweets and replies acknowledged and participated in the fans’ mourning rituals while reassuring the brand’s safety, ultimately aiding the brand’s public recovery. From fans’ displaced blame to the later partnership between the show and brand, labeled “#CrockPotIsInnocent,” this case demonstrates the impact of fictional media, social media engagement for parasocial grief, and a successful real-life brand recovery for a fictional crisis.

Canis in Fabula

The story of the astrologer Ascletario is introduced by Suetonius as the last item in a series of portents and predictions presaging Domitian’s violent death. This paper gives an analysis of this episode, discussed in the wider context of the catalogue of portents inDom. 15.2-3 and, indeed, of the whole death narrative of the biography. A comparison to the parallel story in Cassius Dio (67.16.3) reveals important differences between the two authors; it is argued that Suetonius is closer to the original version of the anecdote and that Dio may have been influenced by Herodotus’ story of Croesus on the pyre. It is also argued that Suetonius expects his readers to connect the Ascletario episode with another Flavian portent, reported atVes. 7.4 (dogs are prominent in both). Two other ‘canine’ passages of theDomitian, 10.1 and 23.1, are briefly discussed. The proposed analysis supports the view of Suetonius as an author who carefully structured his biographical rubrics and invited his readers to make connections within both a single biography and wider textual units.

Human lifecycle development and the experiential learning foundations of an integrated lifelong education framework

Many educators interested in notions of ‘learning through or from experience’ are influenced by Kolb’s basic model of experiential learning. Yet as a set of stages, the model involves a dilemma acknowledged by Kolb himself that it can proceed from either concrete experience or abstract conceptualisation. The paper builds on Kolb’s insights about a possible solution to this dilemma in terms of how experiential learning is in some respects synonymous with but otherwise a more specific version of Alan Rogers’ concept of informal lifelong education. On this basis, it adapts a ‘lifecycle’ perspective on how the direct or micro ‘here and now’ opportunities for constructive experiential learning ever potentially inform the larger or macro concept of lifelong learning – one also linked to the different formal modes as well as stages of education from schooling for youth through to adult education and later life learning. The paper further links various related lifelong learning challenges of harnessing direct life experience to the larger challenge of a typical knowledge-experience disconnect in modern formal education as well as society. Such a disconnect is exemplified by how lifelong informal learning often seems futile (and a lifetime of experience increasingly meaningless) in the face of the modern ‘work-retirement-death’ narrative still influential in a fast-changing and uncertain world.