PSYCHOANALYTICALLY INFORMED RESEARCH IN AN NHS CONTINUING CARE UNIT FOR OLDER PEOPLE: EXPLORING AND DEVELOPING STAFF'S WORK WITH COMPLEX LOSS AND GRIEF

There are studies about the emotional and social aspects of loss and grief in continuing care environments such as care homes and hospital wards, but researchers have tended to focus on either the cultural aspect of the organisation or the emotional response of individuals [Holman, C., Meyer, J. & Cotter, A. (2004) ‘The complexity of loss in continuing care institutions for older people: a review of the literature’, Illness, Crisis and Loss, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 38–51]. This splitting in the body of knowledge misses the opportunity to examine the link between the personal and the broader public domain [Williams, S. J. & Bendelow, G. (1996) ‘Emotions, health and illness: the “missing link” in medical sociology?’, in Health and the Sociology of Emotions, eds V. James & J. Gabe, Blackwell Publications Ltd, Oxford]. This paper concerns the methodology and initial findings from a psychoanalytically informed research study. It was aimed deliberately at exploring the juncture between the psychological and social ...