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Silenced Voices: Experiences of Grief Following Road Traffic Crashes in Western Australia

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Lauren Breen at Curtin University
Lauren Breen
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Abstract

Despite the introduction of road safety measures and media campaigns, crashes are a leading cause of death in Western Australia. While economic costs of crashes are relatively easy to determine, their psychosocial burden remains appreciably under-studied, as are the social, cultural, historical, temporal, and political contexts within which grief experiences are housed. As such, I explored the experience of grief resulting from losing a loved one in a crash in Western Australia and described the influence of contextual factors on those grief experiences.
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... As described in the literature review, bereavement research has largely ignored the broad influences of cultural norms, rurality and gender, let alone considered the individual circumstances of participants' lives. A social constructionist view of suicide and accidental death bereavement requires exploration of this complexity while making sense of and interpreting this experience within the context of life and work as a member of a farming family (Breen, 2006). ...
... The theme of frequent exposure to, and acceptance of life, risk and death, demonstrated that farming-related accidental deaths were not always unexpected in the farming family context, as they are often explained as being in mainstream Australia (Breen, 2006). In fact, accidental deaths were so expected that, at times, this was the immediately (if incorrectly) assumed cause when a participant learned of a sudden death, as with Stephanie and Cameron, even though the deaths were self inflicted. ...
... This suggests it cannot be assumed that all accidental deaths-and, for that matter, all suicide deathswill be understood and experienced similarly. In the broader Australian population, bereavement following accidental death does not demonstrate this preparedness (Breen, 2006). On the contrary, death is 'expected' when it happens in old age, hopefully after a long and full life. ...
Thesis PDF
Data
Full-text available
  • Jan 2017
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... Być może faworyzacja wątku społecznego i ekonomicznego w literaturze anglojęzycznej wynikała z bezpośrednich możliwości ich aplikacji w efektywnym konstruowaniu polityki społecznej czy transportowej? Sposoby pomocy osobom będącym w procesie żałoby po stracie bliskich w wypadku samochodowym rozwijane były w Australii (Breen 2006, Welsh 2017, a reakcja kierowców na pomniki przydrożne -w Kanadzie (Churchill i Tay 2008;Tay 2009;Tay, Churchill, Barros 2011). ...
... Niniejszy fragment rozdziału 3.1. należy traktować jako oczekujący na rozwinięcie zarys problematyki przeżywania żałoby po stracie bliskich w wypadku samochodowym, kwestii chętnie poruszanej w Australii (Breen 2006;Welsh 2017). Bazując na wypowiedziach swoich uczestników badań Susan Welsh (2017) jest przekonana o ważnej roli przydrożnych upamiętnień w procesie żałoby: ich wzniesienie i odwiedzanie przynosi ukojenie. ...
Krzyże powypadkowe przy drogach w Polsce
Book
Full-text available
  • Dec 2022
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... Krzyże, kwiaty, znicze a nawet nagrobki stojące w miejscu wypadku drogowego są częścią zjawiska określanego w literaturze światowej jako spontaniczne upamiętnienia (spontaneous memorialization) lub przydrożne pomniki (roadside memorials). A. Petersson (2010, s. 141) i G. E. Dickinson, H. C. Hoffman (2010, s. 155) zwracają uwagę, że w ciągu ostatnich 15-20 lat zjawisko spontanicznych upamiętnień miejsc śmierci przy drogach stało się powszechną praktyką w Australii, Nowej Zelandii, Japonii, obu Amerykach oraz Europie. Architekci (Petersson, 2010), folkloryści (Everett, 2002), geografowie (Klaassens i in., 2009), psychologowie (Breen, 2006), socjologowie (Nešporová, Stahl, 2014) i inni naukowcy badają przydrożne pomniki pod względem wyglądu, lokalizacji, znaczenia dla ludzi, którzy je wystawili, nie zapominając o poszukiwaniu przyczyn ich pojawiania się we współczesnym świecie. Niniejszy artykuł włącza się w dyskusję wokół tego zjawiska. ...
... Na temat narastającego w ostatnich dekadach zjawiska upamiętniania ofiar wypadków śmiertelnych przy drogach narosła już duża liczba publikacji rozproszonych w różnych czasopismach (Henzel, 1991;Clark, Cheshire, 2004;Clark, Franzmann, 2004;Petersson, 2009;Klaassens i in., 2009;Dickinson, Hoffmann, 2010;Stahl, 2013;Nešporová, Stahl, 2014;Przybylska, 2012Przybylska, , 2015, pracach zbiorowych (Petersson, 2010;Nešporová, 2011;Przybylska, 2011) czy monografiach (Everett, 2002;Breen, 2006;Zimmerman, 2010). Wymienione prace cechuje podejście ilościowe, jakościowe lub mieszane. ...
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... While memorial playgrounds seem to be special, as they are planned and made exclusively to remember children (and never adults), they are not the only permanent contemporary memorials that can be dedicated to children. Other forms include roadside memorials, such as spontaneously and individually raised memorials to victims of car accidents (Bednar, 2020;Breen, 2006;Welsh, 2017), which are often dedicated to adults but sometimes also to children, ghost bikes (Holloway et al., 2018), which, even though the majority of them are dedicated to adults, some are also made to remember children, and other, more individual and particular forms of memorialization, which can be counted as personal expressions of what Doss (2010) characterized as a general trend in memorial-orientedness. ...
Memorial playgrounds: Special ways of coping with extreme loss
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The purpose of this study was to understand how active coping with extreme loss takes place when creating memorial playgrounds, as well as in relation to existing memorial playgrounds. Using qualitative methods and drawing from 63 cases, the research enriches our understanding of bereavement by revealing the central mechanisms through which active coping takes place and by presenting the distinct elements that the mechanisms are composed of. The study contributes to the research on bereavement by showing how active coping takes place both as an outcome of and during the memorial creation process.
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... The main differences found were the fairly common practice of saying prayers and the lack of personal belongings left at roadside memorials. There is less demand for personalised rituals as the significance of traditional mourning and cemetery rituals have not diminished in Poland in contrast to Western societies (Breen, 2006;Clark & Cheshire, 2004;Clark & Franzmann, 2006;Dickinson & Hoffmann, 2010;Nešporová & Stahl, 2014). We found that the coexistence of individual and social rhythms at roadside memorials was deeply rooted in Catholic liturgy and commonly accepted cemetery rituals. ...
Rituals and rhythms at roadside memorials in Poland
Article
  • Jan 2021
Roadside memorials are made up of objects, usually flowers, candles and crosses, placed at the roadside to mark the sites of fatal accidents. The paper introduces the potential of Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis and geography of rhythms in exploring roadside memorials. The aim of the paper is to investigate rituals and rhythms at roadside memorials in Poland. Data were collected during two-year field observations of 12 roadside memorials and from 10 semi-structured interviews. Polish roadside memorials are part of widespread rituals which either generate material changes to roadside memorials, like cleaning up works, leaving candles and flowers at memorials or which do not generate such changes, like saying prayers or reminiscing about the deceased. The specifics of roadside memorialisation in Poland are expressed in prayers being said and no personal belongings being left at the sites. We found that the coexistence of individual and social rhythms at roadside memorials was deeply rooted in Catholic liturgy and commonly accepted cemetery rituals in Poland.
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... Fresh flowers, candles, religious symbols, and photos of the deceased have been placed at the sites of such accidents. This commemoration of road accident fatalities has led to the appearance of numerous academic publications on memorials, which have been referred to in various ways-as roadside death memorials (Reid and Reid 2001), sudden death memorials (Stahl 2013) or, more commonly, roadside memorials (Zimmerman 2010;Hartig and Dunn 1998;Clark and Franzmann 2006;Breen 2006;Petersson 2009;Owen 2011;Tay 2009;Cohen 2012). Crosses placed at the sites of fatal road accidents are part of the memorialisation phenomenon. ...
Are Roadside Crosses in Poland a Religious or Cultural Expression?
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2020
The paper contributes to the discourse on roadside memorialisation in the countries of Christian heritage in Europe, Australia, and North America. The aim of the paper is to assess the social perception of the motivation of people constructing roadside crosses at the places of fatal car accidents along public roads in Poland. Is it religious, cultural or both religious and cultural? The uniqueness of this survey lies in its representativeness of the population of one country and the religiosity variable incorporated into a public opinion poll. The study proves that there exists a relationship between one’s declaration of faith and the perception of memorial crosses. Believers more often than atheists opt for both a religious and a cultural meaning of roadside crosses. Atheists and agnostics more often than believers associate roadside crosses only with a cultural meaning—the custom of marking places of death with crosses.
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... Several key factors influence bereaved individuals' decision-making about memorials and memorialization practices, including gender, age, culture, religion, relationship to the deceased, and the cause of death (Lowe et al., 2019). Memorialization practices do not lend themselves to a "one size fits all" approach, although there are patterns evident in the literature, such as the use of digital memorialization and peer support groups where types of loss, such as infant loss (Grout & Romanoff, 2000), suicide (Bell, Bailey, & Kennedy, 2015), homicide (Bottomley, Burke, & Neimeyer, 2017), and motor vehicle accidents (Breen, 2006) are considered socially isolating (Mitchell et al., 2012). Where death is unexpected, sudden or violent in nature, memorialization seems to play a more important role in assisting the bereaved to process their loss and the associated feelings of grief (Burke & Neimeyer, 2012;Haney, Leimer, & Lowery, 1997). ...
The Evolving Landscape: Funerals, Cemeteries, Memorialization, and Bereavement Support
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The aim of this study was to provide a better understanding of current memorialization practices and their influence on grief due to bereavement and to explore ways of improving bereavement outcomes. The qualitative research design incorporated two phases, a scoping literature review, followed by in-depth interviews with eight service providers from the funeral, cemetery, and crematorium industries across Australia. The trend toward informal memorialization practices blurs the roles of community members and formal industry service providers. A public health approach to bereavement support that encompasses both groups is recommended as the most appropriate response to the evolving landscape. This approach focuses on building partnerships between industry service providers and other community organizations involved in end-of-life issues. We propose that reframing the role of formal industry service providers as educators and facilitators partnered within compassionate communities will support improved outcomes for the bereaved.
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Beğeni ve Yorum Eğilimlerinin Trafik Kazası Videoları Üzerinden AnaliziAnalyzing Like and Comment Tendencies Through Traffic Accident Videos
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Bireylerin ve toplumların iletişim araçlarını kullanma süreçleri kültür ya da konuşulan dil dolayısıyla farklılıklar gösterebilmektedir. Bununla birlikte, benzer içeriklere gösterilen tepkilerin öğrenilmesi farklı araçlar için teoride önemli fikirler sunabilir. Bu çalışmanın amacı da, benzer bir içeriğin farklı dillerde izleyen kullanıcılarda nasıl bir etkileşim ortamı oluşturabileceğinin anlaşılmasını sağlamaktır. Bu yüzden, çalışma, küresel anlamda benzer tepkiler gösterileceği varsayılabilecek trafik kazası videolarına odaklanmıştır. Örneklem grupları için YouTube'da en çok aboneye sahip ilk 50 trafik kazası kanalı ile 30 adet Türkçe yayın yapan trafik kazası kanalı seçilmiştir. İki farklı hipotez grubuyla, kanallar ve kanalların videoları ayrı ayrı testlere tabi tutulmuşlardır. İlk hipotez grubu için tüm kanalların yorum ve beğeni oranları hesaplanmış; ardından izlenme sayıları ile ağırlıklı oranlamalar üzerinden kanalların ortalamaları elde edilmiştir. İkinci hipotez grubu için de, Türkçe kanalların video sayıları ile yakın sayıda bir örneklem grubu karşılaştırması yapabilmek için, ilk 50 kanal arasından ilk 4 kanalın videoları alınmıştır. Tüm verilerin box-plot yöntemiyle aykırı değerleri hesaplanmıştır. Çıkarılan aykırı değerler sonrasında, kanallar için Shapiro-Wilk, videolar için de Kolmogorov-Smirnov normallik testleri gerçekleştirilmiştir. Bu iki süreç sonrasında hipotez testlerine geçilmiş olup, kanallar için Welch'in T-Testi (n1=47 ve n2=28; p=0,041); videolar için Mann-Whitney U Testi (n3=586 ve n4=579; p=0,00001) uygulanmıştır. Sonuçlar hem kanallar için hem de videolar için farklı ortalamalara sahip olunduğunu göstermiştir. Türkçe içerik izleyicilerinin, diğer gruplara oranla, beğeni bırakırken aynı zamanda yorum yapma eğiliminde de olduğu tespit edilmiştir.
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Moment that Goes Beyond Silence: Parents' Lived Experiences of Grief Due to Traumatic Loss in Bataan, Philippines
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Chapter
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