scholarly journals Understanding grief in a time of COVID-19 - a hypothetical approach to challenges and support

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Fang ◽  
Alastair Comery
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
Loss And Grief ◽  
Grief And Bereavement ◽  
Continuous Support ◽  
Literate Culture ◽  
Academic Discourses

<p><a></a>This article develops preliminary understandings of loss and grief at both an individual and collective level following the COVID-19 outbreak. By examining relevant media and academic discourses, the authors analyse and envisage challenges and support for those experiencing loss during COVID-19. The discussion revisits and further relocates the ideas of good and bad deaths in the context of increased social constrains and inequalities. Further, two pairs of contrasting hypotheses are proposed to examine the impacts of COVID-19 on both bereaved individuals and society as a whole during and post the outbreak. The discussion captures a mixed picture of grief and bereavement, which highlights the importance of timely, holistic and continuous support. It is found that individual and collectives express diverse needs to respond to deaths and losses as a process of meaning-making. Further the significance of socio-cultural environments also become evident. These findings highlight community support during COVID-19 and further promote a grief literate culture as imperative to support individual and collective needs when confronted with loss and grief. This article provides timely and comprehensive accounts of possible challenges and support both for individual and collective experiences of loss and grief. These understandings could facilitate further research, informing better practice and policy decisions to support the bereaved in the context of COVID-19 and other disruptive world events.</p>

scholarly journals Understanding grief in a time of COVID-19 - a hypothetical approach to challenges and support

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Fang ◽  
Alastair Comery
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
Loss And Grief ◽  
Grief And Bereavement ◽  
Continuous Support ◽  
Literate Culture ◽  
Academic Discourses

<p><a></a>This article develops preliminary understandings of loss and grief at both an individual and collective level following the COVID-19 outbreak. By examining relevant media and academic discourses, the authors analyse and envisage challenges and support for those experiencing loss during COVID-19. The discussion revisits and further relocates the ideas of good and bad deaths in the context of increased social constrains and inequalities. Further, two pairs of contrasting hypotheses are proposed to examine the impacts of COVID-19 on both bereaved individuals and society as a whole during and post the outbreak. The discussion captures a mixed picture of grief and bereavement, which highlights the importance of timely, holistic and continuous support. It is found that individual and collectives express diverse needs to respond to deaths and losses as a process of meaning-making. Further the significance of socio-cultural environments also become evident. These findings highlight community support during COVID-19 and further promote a grief literate culture as imperative to support individual and collective needs when confronted with loss and grief. This article provides timely and comprehensive accounts of possible challenges and support both for individual and collective experiences of loss and grief. These understandings could facilitate further research, informing better practice and policy decisions to support the bereaved in the context of COVID-19 and other disruptive world events.</p>

scholarly journals Understanding Grief During the First-Wave of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom—A Hypothetical Approach to Challenges and Support

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Fang ◽  
Alastair Comery
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Loss And Grief ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Continuous Support ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Media Data

Purpose: This article develops immediate understandings of loss and grief at both an individual and collective level following the first-wave of COVID-19 in the UK. This allows for insights into the likely challenges and support for loss and grief in facing unprecedented disruption and uncertainty. Ultimately, it explores avenues for the priorities to inform better bereavement support.Methods: By examining trusted media data and carefully selected academic literature, we analyse both individual and societal responses to loss and grief in the novel context of the first-wave of COVID-19 in the UK. The discussion relocates the ideas of good and bad deaths in the context of increased social constrains and inequalities. Further, two pairs of contrasting hypotheses are proposed to examine how the UK's first-wave outbreak has shaped policy and practical structures and how these have further impacted experiences of loss and grief both at an individual and collective level.Findings: The discussion captures a mixed picture of loss and grief in the UK, which highlights the importance of timely, holistic, and continuous support both in social policy and care provision. It is found that individuals and collectives express diverse needs in response to deaths and losses as a process of meaning-making. Further, the significance of socio-cultural environments also become evident. These findings highlight community support during the outbreak and further promote a grief literate culture as imperative to support individual and collective needs when confronted with loss and grief.Conclusion: This article provides a timely and comprehensive account of possible challenges and support both for individual and collective experiences of loss and grief at a time of unprecedented social restrictions and mass deaths in the UK. These understandings provide a base from which we advocate the priorities for future research into the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on grief and bereavement.

scholarly journals Understanding Death and Grief in the Context of Pandemics — Challenges and Support in Response to COVID-19

Inter ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 46-52
Author(s):  
Chao Fang
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Bereavement Support ◽  
Loss And Grief ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Continuous Support ◽  
Academic Discourses

This article presents a preliminary inquiry into the impacts of COVID-19 on death, dying and bereavement. Adopting a sociological lens, this inquiry explores how social norms and values have shaped and been shaped by experiences of loss and grief amid COVID-19 outbreak. By examining relevant media and academic discourses, the author critically analyses the challenges confronted by those experiencing dying and grieving during this pandemic, and further envisages needs for better bereavement support moving forward. It finds that both individuals and collectives express diverse needs in response to COVID-19 related loss and grief. This highlights grief as a process of meaning-making, emphasising the importance of timely, holistic and continuous support. Further, the significance of socio-cultural environments also become evident. Ultimately, this article explores avenues for further developing bereavement support.

scholarly journals The Traditional Understanding of Grief Among Ameru in Kenya

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mukiri Mukaria ◽  
Andrew Ratanya Mukaria
Keyword(s):  
Culturally Relevant ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Grief And Bereavement ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church ◽  
Traditional Understanding

The main objective of this article is to explore the Ameru indigenous ways of overcoming death and grief. Death and grief have always been the most challenging thing throughout the history of human beings, and even within contemporary society. The Ameru culture provided room, space and meaning of death and life after death to both the dead and to the living. The culture was an integral part of Ameru, especially on matters of death and grief. The culture provided values found to be helpful to the well-being of the Ameru people, in a holistic way especially in the period of grief and bereavement. The article explores these meaning and how they can be relevant to the contemporary society, which ethos are guided by the Church. Today, the church plays the central role in overcoming grief and bereavement. In meaning making, there is a need for contextualization. Contextualization is an attempt to present the gospel in culturally relevant ways. For this reason, this article tries to explore some of the Ameru ways of overcoming grief and how this can be relevant to the contemporary Church diakonia work and counseling of grief.

Outcome of Patients Committed to Hospital under the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1960

1986 ◽  
Vol 148 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. McKechnie ◽  
Alison Corser ◽  
Mrs V. McMillan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Psychiatric Hospital ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Hospital Treatment ◽  
Matched Group ◽  
Functional Psychoses ◽  
Consent To Treatment ◽  
Continuous Support

All patients formally detained in a Scottish psychiatric hospital between 1974 and 1979 were identified and their outcome determined 2½–8½ years later. A matched group, detained under Emergency Orders only, were also followed-up. Those formally detained had more previous psychiatric contact: functional psychoses were significantly more common in them. They remained in hospital longer, and required extensive community support when discharged. Those detained under Emergency Orders only, consisted of two sub-groups–one who left the area within two years of admission and could not be traced, and the remainder, who continued to require hospital treatment but for shorter times and with less continuous support. Amongst those detained, lack of insight was a predominant feature, which may create difficulty with regard to informed consent to treatment, given the present Amendments to the Mental Health Acts.

Loss, Grief, and Bereavement

2018 ◽  
pp. 200-213
Author(s):  
Carla P. Smith ◽  
Adam S. Froerer
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Ambiguous Loss ◽  
Case Presentation ◽  
Loss And Grief ◽  
Grief And Bereavement

This chapter will discuss the concepts of loss, grief, and bereavement, with a special emphasis on cultural awareness, and will outline how SFBT therapists can help clients manage these pervasive feelings and experiences. Ambiguous loss will also be explored and linked to the reasons clients often struggle throughout the bereavement journey. This chapter will also highlight the non-judgmental stance that is held by SFBT therapists and how this stance can contribute to healing and growth for clients. Finally, a case presentation will be presented to illustrate how a SFBT clinician can work with individuals and families while they progress through bereavement after loss and grief.

Considering Identity and Meaning Constructions for Vulnerable Young People

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 672-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Noble-Carr ◽  
Elise Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Ideal Self ◽  
Identity Exploration ◽  
Narrative Approaches ◽  
Identity Constructions ◽  
Loss And Grief

Identity and meaning are fundamental to human experience and are particularly pertinent during adolescence and times of adversity. While identity development and meaning making can be different for vulnerable young people, who experience multiple adverse life events, there is currently little evidence of how these young people construct identity and make meaning from their experiences. This article reports on a phenomenological study, which allowed young people to start from their own understandings of identity and meaning and explore the ways they constructed their sense of self and place in the world. Interviews were conducted with 24 young people from Canberra, Australia. The study found identity constructions were profoundly influenced by an entrenched sense of autonomy, a longing to be the opposite of what they had experienced, and the expectation of living up to their own constructions of an ideal self. The findings strengthen our understanding of identity construction for this group, highlight the value of adopting narrative approaches to identity exploration, and demonstrate the value of incorporating knowledge from the field of loss and grief. Strategies to support vulnerable young people to develop positive, coherent, and achievable identity and meaning constructions are provided.

The Disenfranchisement of Perinatal Grief: How Silence, Silencing and Self-Censorship Complicate Bereavement (a Mixed Methods Study)

2021 ◽  
pp. 003022282110505
Author(s):  
Paul Richard Cassidy
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Community Support ◽  
The Social ◽  
Perinatal Grief

Based on an ethnographic and mixed-methods research design, the article explores the social and interactive processes of disenfranchisement of perinatal grief through the mechanisms of silence, silencing and self-censorship in encounters between bereaved women and the social milieu. The analysis finds that disenfranchisement results from the constriction of the social space of bereavement along various lines of discourse, cultural values, practice and materiality, that include: the passing of time (expectations of a quick ‘recovery’); competing discourses of loss (simplistic-dominant vs. complex-subordinate meaning-making); the biometrics of pregnancy (lower gestational age being equated with less intense grief); gendered ideas of reproduction and feeling rules; asymmetries in social power; social spheres (hospital, home, community, support groups); socio-materialities and performance/ritual; and structural aspects of social and familial organization (gender, age, intergenerational and kin v. non-kin relations). These processes are intimately linked to the complication of grief by undermining support, meaning-making and continuing bonds.

Shared Responsibilities for Full Participation in Society: Planning Further Integration of the ICF Into AAC

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (12) ◽  
pp. 83-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Blake Huer ◽  
Travis T. Threats
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Augmentative And Alternative Communication ◽  
Functional Limitations ◽  
Community Support ◽  
World Health ◽  
International Classification Of Functioning ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Social Service Agencies ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Full Participation

The World Health Organization's (WHO's) 2001 International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF) has as one of its central tenets the full inclusion of persons with disabilities in society. It acknowledges the need for medical and rehabilitation intervention in its biopscychosocial framework. However, the WHO realizes that society must do its part to facilitate this full participation and empowerment. Persons with complex communication needs (PWCCN) often need augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in order to express themselves. However, in order to access and successfully use AAC, PWCCN need access to the necessary AAC devices and services, as well as a willing society to interact with them as full contributing members of society. The factors outside of a person's specific physical and/or cognitive functional limitations are addressed in the ICF via the Personal and Environmental Factors. Personal Factors include the individual's personality traits, lifestyle, experiences, social/educational/professional background, race, gender, and age. Environmental Factors include community support systems, social service agencies, governments, social networks, and those persons that interact with the PWCCN. This article addresses the sociopolitical influences on PWCCN and their functioning from a human rights perspective. The necessary introspective role of speech-language pathologists in this process is explored.

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