- Can identify and explain diverse cultural perspectives on death and dying
- Can analyze representations of death and mortality in art and popular culture
Overview
Aging and death are not subjects most people enjoy talking about, but they are facts of life. As a long-time staff member of the Elder Services Resource Center, you are aware of the many significant issues and decisions all people face as they age. The center, established by the founder of nearby Maven Manor Nursing Home, operates on the belief that all people, young and old, should have access to the resources they need to help themselves and their loved ones with questions about aging and end of life. In your career at the center, you have never experienced a dull moment. So it comes as no surprise that the upcoming weeks will be busy ones for you. You'll be educating a group of newly hired Maven Manor employees about the aging process, and compiling critical reference information on legal and care issues for your center's website. You will also share your expertise with the community by writing about the impact of the country's aging society, and sharing broader cultural and social perspectives on human mortality.
Directions
You have been getting lots of great feedback on your article. A good friend of yours, Rhoda Redmond, is the head librarian at your town's local library. Because she knows that your interests go beyond the basics of your job, she would like to bring you in to the library to talk about end-of-life issues from a different angle. She is inviting you to give a presentation, open to the public, on cultural and artistic perspectives related to mortality and death.
Go through the Project resources and prepare a six-to-ten-minute narrated slide presentation that is written in your own words and geared toward a general audience (people of different ages with different levels of familiarity with the topics).
Presentation Part 1: Perspectives on Death around the World
Choose two examples from the video resource of artistic representations of death in cultures outside the US. For each:
1. Give a brief description of the example and include at least one visual to help your audience understand it.
2. Explain what this example shows about the culture's values and beliefs.
3. Explain what the purpose of the creative work is in terms of the messages or ideas it is intended to convey to living people within the culture.
Presentation Part: Perspectives on Death in the United States
1. Explain how social and demographic factors have played a major role in driving changes in perceptions about death in the United States between the 1900s and today.
2. Identify a movie, TV show or online video, currently or recently popular in the United States, in which death or mortality plays a central role. Choose something you have already seen or will be able to watch before creating the presentation. (Note: If you need help with ideas, try exploring websites like IMDB or YouTube.) Then:
o Briefly describe the movie, show or video and the way death/mortality figures into it.
o Based on the resources, explain what this particular representation of death/mortality might reflect about people's attitudes toward death/mortality today.
3. Discuss the issues related to death and mortality that people in the healthcare field need to be aware of when working with patients and families in the multicultural society of the United States.
For all sources used in the presentation, including the example you choose from popular culture (movie, TV show or video), be sure to provide citations in APA format.