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Grief and Bereavement

Pandemic management has not stepped up for the public's bereavement needs. 


The structure led by world health is focused on infectious disease points; epidemiology, disease management, mitigation, immunization and therapeutics. There remains a lack of global  psychological and social structure around the COVID pandemic.


National pandemic response has failed to address real-time grief and bereavement throughout the pandemic. National and international strategies for bereavement funding, staffing and operations at the public health level are not communicated, and likely do not exist.  Grief and bereavement response can and should be addressed globally.


For this COVID pandemic, and for a future pandemic that may happen at any moment, grief and bereavement structure should be initiated now.


*Grief and bereavement epidemiology should be clear and standard. Here is a helpful indicator, the methodology behind it, and potential application for numbers projections without reliance to privacy/individual inclusion. https://www.pnas.org/content/117/30/17695


*Grief and bereavement metrics should drive support at the public health level, even if this is a new support for local health departments. LHD should also support bereavement training and development.


*Grief and bereavement expertise, counseling and labor should be staffed up, with standardized education and training for interested clinicians. 


*Leadership from hospice, palliative and others with mandated and incorporated bereavement counseling should be requested. Leadership should be given autonomy, flexibility, spotlight and clear expectations/goals.


*Loss of life, loss of way of life and secondary bereavement should be a component to national and international strategies in pandemic task forces. Communication, wording and shared expressions internationally should reflect these concepts without delay.


*Grief and bereavement for the workplace should be two-fold, for healthcare professionals and for the public. Employers should be provided leadership as well as regulatory guidance on the subject. Additionally, time and space for personal care and employee mental wellness needs to be of greater expectation in labor management. Discussions such as these should not be one-offs: https://www.aafp.org/news/blogs/freshperspectives/entry/202001001fp-grief.html 


*National acknowledgement is a start, and these pages could all benefit from national epidemiology, communication and global shared messaging. 

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/social-distancing/bereavement-advice-and-support/

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/stress-coping/grief-loss.html

https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/covid-19



Grief and bereavement management at the public health level is absent. The COVID pandemic has spotlighted this gap. The current public can and should be cared for, and future pandemics needn't be as deficient.  

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