title: Death competence: an ethical imperative.
abstract: The authors argued that death competence, defined as specialized skill in tolerating and managing clients' problems related to dying, death, and bereavement, is a necessary prerequisite for ethical practice in grief counseling. A selected review of the literature tracing the underpinnings of this concept reveals how a robust construct of death competence evolved. Using the vehicle of a case study, the authors analyzed an example of empathic failure resulting from an apparent lack of death competence on the part of a mental health provider to illustrate the importance of this characteristic in delivering clinically effective and ethically sensitive grief counseling.
authors.affiliation: Scott & White Healthcare, Temple, Texas 76508, USA. Lgamino@swmail.sw.org
authors.forename: Louis A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Gamino
authors.affiliation: Scott & White Healthcare, Temple, Texas 76508, USA.
authors.forename: R Hal
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Ritter
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000941:ethics; D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001601:Bereavement; D002983:Clinical Competence; D032781:Codes of Ethics; D003376:Counseling / Q000941:ethics*; D003379:Countertransference; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008604:Mental Health Associations; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000941:ethics*; D014481:United States; D017805:Widowhood / Q000523:psychology