The Impact of Anticipatory Grief on Caregivers of Persons with Alzheimer's Disease

“Pomeroy and colleagues noted that grief is a “universal response” to the devastating losses that emerge during dementia progression (Walker & Pomeroy, 1996, 1997; Walker, Pomeroy, McNeil, & Franklin, 1994).”

“…by guest on 26 July 2018 752 The Gerontologist Others have noted, in more general ways, the existence of grief as a significant and universal experience among dementia caregivers (Bowd & Loos, 1996; Walker & Pomeroy, 1996, 1997; Walker, Pomeroy, McNeil, & Franklin, 1994).”

“Grief increases as caregivers plan for and make facility placement (Chan et al., 2013; Marwit & Meuser, 2001; Walker & Pomeroy, 1997), while burden and depression decrease after facility placement (Gaugler, Mittelman, Hepburn, & Newcomer, 2014).”

“Third, most people in the United States now die from chronic illness which, in turn, gives rise to longer periods of uncertainty and anticipatory grief among family caregivers (66).”

“Pre-death: Walker and Pomeroy (1997) and Ott et al. (2010) reported support group attendance (36% and 35%, respectively).”

“However, strong significant associations between anticipatory grief and burden (Walker & Pomeroy, 1997; Marwit & Meuser, 2002; 2005; Holley & Mast, 2009) have fuelled suggestions that grief explanations are a central component in understanding caregiver burden.”

“A significant association between AG and caregiver burden has been revealed in a number of studies ( Marwit & Meuser, 2002 ; Marwit & Meuser, 2005 ; Walker & Pomeroy, 1997 ; Holley & Mast, 2009 ).”

“Bereavement may begin before death, during the period of palliative and end of life care [74,75].”

“Not surprisingly, caregivers with PDG have been shown to suffer from negative effects such as caregiver burden (Holley & Mast, 2009) and depression (Chan et al., 2013), and desire to institutionalize the PWD prematurely (Walker & Pomeroy, 1997).”

“Predeath grief contributes to impaired caregiver physical health (Walker & Pomeroy, 1997), depression (Sanders & Adams, 2005), burden (Holley & Mast, 2009), and prolonged grief after the death of a care-recipient (Givens, Prigerson, Kiely, Shaffer, & Mitchell, 2011).”

“Further, this study concurred with the findings of Walker and Pomeroy (1997), who reported that anticipatory grief had a positive impact on post-death grief work.”

“…to prevent caregivers from struggling to fight the inevitable decline in PLWD, which can contribute to caregivers’ feelings of helplessness, perceived caregiving burden, and depressive symptoms and to nursing home admission in PLWD (Liew et al., 2019; Liew and Yap, 2020; Walker and Pomeroy, 1997).”

“Previous research showed that pre-loss grief was associated with physical or emotional impairment in caregivers, who were likely to consider admission of the recipient to long-term care [35, 36].”

“Not surprisingly, high levels of PDG have been associated with caregiver burden [14] and depression [11], and increase the risk of caregivers considering nursing home placement for the PWD [15].”

“Not surprisingly, in extant literature, caregiver grief has been associated with caregiver burden (Holley & Mast, 2009), caregiver depression (Chan et al., 2013), and caregivers’ desire to place the PWD in nursing homes (Walker & Pomeroy, 1997).”

“Following Zagier Roberts’ (1994) analysis of a similar organization, this resistance to integration was viewed as a defence from the intolerable feelings provoked in staff when working with frail, dependent older people.”

“Sanders, Rogers, Gately, and Kennedy (2008) identified high levels of grief in AD caregivers; yet, caregivers may tend 215Research in Gerontological Nursing • Vol. 5, No. 3, 2012 to interpret their feelings as anger and depression (Walker & Pomeroy, 1997).”

“Moreover, satisfaction with life was found to be negatively related to pre-loss grief and positively related to preparedness for caregiving (Holley, 2009; Ostwald et al., 2009; Walker & Pomeroy, 1997).”

“…scholars have associated anticipatory grief and anticipatory mourning with the processes incurred by the loved ones of the dying—these individuals anticipate the death of the patient and experience bereavement prior to the patient’s passing (Kacel, Gao, & Prigerson, 2011; Walker & Pomeroy, 1997).”

“Walker et al. found a strong associationbetweenself‐ratedhealthandnegativeemotions,with poorer health correlating with heightened psychological distress [42].”

“Studies suggest that pre-death grief among family caregivers of individuals with ADRD may contribute to caregivers’ depressive symptoms and the nursing home admission of individuals with ADRD (Liew et al., 2019; Sánchez-Alcón et al., 2024; Walker and Pomeroy, 1997).”