Archived Event
The Alliance Advancement Series
Overcoming Survivor’s Guilt: Strategies to Help Recipients Understand the Positive Impact of Donation
Presented on: Thursday, January 27, 2022
A common experience for many post-transplant recipients is survivor guilt; “my organ donor had to die in order for me to live”. What these recipients fail to realize, however, is that donor families want their organ recipients to embrace the gift, live a full life and not feel guilty. Without personal donation experience, or knowledge of an actual donor family, transplant professionals are often unable to share stories from the donor family perspective to help counsel and support recipients who express these feelings of guilt. In addition, grief education and the awareness of survivor’s guilt is often incomplete among health professionals. Join us as we explore several contemporary grief models and illuminate how donation can have a beneficial effect on the grief process.
- Identify two contemporary grief theories that relate to the grief of donor families.
- Define survivor’s guilt in transplant recipients and how that impacts physical and emotional health of recipients.
- List several techniques to support transplant recipients and help them cope with their feelings of guilt.
- Summarize grief theory and demonstrate practical language to use with recipients post-transplant.
- Describe anecdotal donor family experiences that can be shared with recipients and, in turn, provide enhanced support for a recipient who might be experiencing survivor guilt.
Talia Giordano
MSW, LCSW
Director, Family Services and Caregiver Lifeline Program
Sarah Moran
LCSW, CCTSW
Social Worker
Maine Transplant Program
Members of the donation and transplantation community serving diverse populations to include administrators, coordinators, physicians, nurses, surgeons, managers, quality improvement specialists, social workers, and other donation and transplantation center professionals and their colleagues.
Continuing Education Credits
Continuing Education credits are no longer available for this learning opportunity.
