DEALING WITH DEATH AND DYING IN ADOLESCENCE: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

The process of death and dying entails several defense mechanisms in adolescents and their families, such as isolation and denial. As a result of the damage to the mental health of all those involved in the process of a terminal illness, especially adolescents; and due to the complexity of that moment, the present study aims to reflect on how adolescents, in a terminal state, deal with death and dying. For that, a descriptive, bibliographical research of the integrative review type with a qualitative approach was carried out. The study was carried out based on the period from 2018 to 2022, and the data collected in the electronic databases: Virtual Health Library (VHL), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and Google Scholar. Thus, it was found that adolescent patients, in the course of their terminal illness, were not undergoing psychological follow-up, had difficulty talking about the topic and felt the absence of an open dialogue about their diagnosis and prognosis. Finally, it is expected that this study will lead to an increase in research on this topic, due to the scarcity of research, and that this scientific production will contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of adolescence.