A Phenomenological and Clinical Description of Pandemic Grief: How to Adapt Bereavement Services?

Background: Some studies suggest that individuals having lost a loved one during the COVID-19 pandemic report higher levels of grief reactions than people bereaved from natural causes. Little is known about the lived and subjective experience of individuals who lost a loved one under confinement measures. Aim: This research aims to provide a phenomenological description of pandemic grief (PG) that can be useful in clinical settings and bereavement services. Methods: Seventy-six qualitative phenomenological interviews have been conducted with 37 individuals who have lost a loved one during the first wave of the pandemic. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was performed following Tracy's criteria for rigorous qualitative research. Results: The experience of PG comprises clinical manifestations and can be described as "a type of grief occurring in the context of a pandemic, where applicable public health measures have precedence over end of life and caregiving practices as well as funeral rituals, overshadowing the needs, values, and wishes of the dying individuals and those who grieve them." Discussion/Conclusion: This study is the first to provide a phenomenological and experiential understanding of PG. Our phenomenological description can be helpful in clinical settings such as bereavement services within palliative care teams.

Expressing grief through metaphors: family caregivers' experience of care and grief during the Covid-19 pandemic.

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted thousands of individuals' experience of caregiving and grief. This qualitative study aimed to gain in-dept understanding of family caregivers' lived experiences of caregiving and bereavement in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada. The study also aimed at providing new insight about caregiving and bereavement by analysing the metaphors family caregivers use to report their experiences. METHODS: The design of this study was guided by an interpretative phenomenological approach. In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty bereaved family caregivers who had lost a loved one during the first waves of the pandemic. RESULTS: Results indicate that bereaved family caregivers lived and understood their experience in terms of metaphoric cut-offs, obstructions and shockwaves. These three metaphors represented the grief process and the bereaved's quest for social connection, narrative coherence and recognition. CONCLUSION: By identifying the meaning of the bereaved's metaphors and the quest they reveal, our study underlines the singularity of pandemic grief and points to the value and meaning of caregiving with regard to the grieving process.