Grave Words: Notifying Survivors About Sudden, Unexpected Deaths.

Grave Words: Notifying Survivors About Sudden, Unexpected Deaths by Kenneth V. Iserson, M.D., Galen Press, Ltd., Tucson, Arizona, 1999.

Grave Words guides law enforcement managers in developing policy for sudden and unexpected death notifications. It offers excellent communication skills and checklists necessary for officers to professionally deliver tragic news to surviving loved ones and coworkers.

This book addresses various personal and professional protocol interfaces, and the content can be applied to all law enforcement agencies at various levels. It provides invaluable information on avoiding the common cliches that survivors could interpret negatively, which could cause a violent response toward the bearer of the death news.

The author presents a wealth of practical and demonstrated information on all of the logical steps in death notifications. In the first section of the book, the author chronicles what phrases professionals must know and how and when to best use them. This section explains how to avoid using words and comments that can mentally damage the survivors of the victims of homicides, suicides, accidental and unexpected deaths, as well as department personnel who die in the line of duty. The author includes an 11-page checklist that law enforcement administrators can use to develop protocol for delivering sudden and unexpected death notifications.

In section two, the author focuses on lists of common hostile responses by survivors to the news of the victim's death. This information proves beneficial for notification personnel by preparing them to better cope with various emotional responses by the survivors. This section also provides a table on how to help survivors before, during, and after a funeral and memorial service.

Most compelling is the information in section three that includes two specific chapters on the tasks that officials who deliver death notifications must face. A unique 7-page checklist covers the relevant aspects for law enforcement departments concerning death notification preparation, support teams for the department members and other surviving family members, command and specific officer liaison efforts, financial and other benefits available for the surviving families, and the chaplain's involvement. All of this critical information is then supported by a comprehensive example of a department line-of-duty death policy that managers can modify easily to their agency, no matter what size.

Contained in section four is a compilation of a survey response from survivors, including their questions and answers. This section also includes how to prepare for the planning and interfacing with the media on disaster crashes and environmental catastrophes, high-profile incidents, or other major criminal events where death occurs.

Grave Words includes a total of 39 well-developed matrix tables that support the various chapters. The quality and applicability of the book's content is validated in its 2-page acknowledgments from many experienced death notification professionals.

Grave Words is a must-have book for all law enforcement or criminal justice officials tasked with death notification. It can help officers lessen the negative, stressful impact on themselves and the receivers of such painful news by offering some simple, yet proven, procedures. Additionally, it can help administrators establish policy and procedures for death notifications; develop survivor assistant programs; serve as a reference or guide for chaplains; and offer support for department grant funding requests for such items as policy development and departmentwide training.