Homeland Security - Response & Recovery - Essay Example

It is then vital that upon actual operation, when all responding personnel come face-to-face with the families of the deceased, to understand that emotions are at their extremes. To assist everyone with this matter, keep in mind that there are five (5) processes or stages involved in dealing with their grief and loss. Remember the acronym DABDA; where D stands for denial, A stands for anger, B stands for bargaining, D stands for depression and A stands for acceptance (Kubler et al, n.d.). The first stage which is denial often makes everybody wonder if the situation really happened and why it did not happen to someone else.

Denial makes an individual less perceptive about his or her surroundings and usually cannot relate with continuity because they are still in a state of shock. Most people who undergo this stage wonder if it is still possible to go on because the loss is quite unbearable to think of and survival is out of the question at the moment (Kubler et al, n.d.) The second stage of the psychological process of having to deal with death is anger. When in grief and in despair, a person usually forgets to be rational and throws caution to the wind.

Feeling angry about the loss is often displaced to somebody else, making that person a target of emotional outbursts. Anger is a way of trying to reconnect and acknowledging the pain a person is feeling. While it may seem that this strong emotion can go on and on, it will dissipate in time and healing starts to set in. So when someone is angry due to a loss, it is advisable to just let the person rant on because suppressing it will only delay the natural healing process that the grieving person is unconsciously seeking for (Kubler et al, n.d.).

The third stage is bargaining. This phase is characterized by asking the question “What if?” The “ifs” is the grieving person’s way of saying that he or she really just wants to remain in the past. It is a feeling that craves for the normal pattern of life the person was used to. It is also means to cover the guilty feeling of being alive, while his or her loved one has passed away (Kubler et al, n.d.). After bargaining, the grief stricken individual enters the fourth stage which is depression.

This emotion must not be interchanged with the mental disorder depression since losing somebody to death is naturally depressing. Having a mental disorder of depression on the other hand is being saddened or dismayed for no particular reason at all. Depression is a normal feeling a person will have after the death of a loved one that will normally be forgotten after sometime when the healing process is completed (Kubler et al, n.d.). The fifth stage is acceptance. When reality really settles down, a person does not have any choice except to go on for there is nothing anyone can do to change what has happened in the past.

While it may seem that the dead loved one is being betrayed by having to live on and continue to enjoy life; the fact is that life must go on. It is about time to start picking up the pieces and being at peace with the knowledge that life must be lived without the presence of the dead loved one (Kubler et al, n.d.).. Having explained the emotional and psychological aspects responders will be encountering at the