Prognosticating COVID Therapeutic Responses: Ambiguous Loss and Disenfranchised Grief.

Conventionally, therapeutic assessments, interventions, and treatments have focussed on death-related "losses and grief" responses. It is purported that the COVID-19 aftermath has resulted in losses that cannot always be encapsulated using this method. In search of reasoning, models and theories that explain the sweeping mass destruction that COVID-19 has caused, key concepts arise in terms of how we should deal with losses and in turn support patients in the health and social care sector, (notwithstanding formal therapeutic services). There is a crucial need to embrace ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief into everyday terminology and be acquainted with these issues, thereby adapting how services/clinicians now embrace loss and grief work. Integral to this process is to recognize that there has been a disproportionate impact on Black and minority ethnic communities, and we now need to ensure services are "seriously culturally competent." Primary Care services/IAPT/health and social care/voluntary sector are all likely to be at the forefront of delivering these interventions and are already established gatekeepers. So, this article discusses the prognostic therapeutic response to non-death related losses and grief, not restricted to the formal echelons of therapeutic provision.

Loss and grief amidst COVID-19: A path to adaptation and resilience.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an extreme threat to global health and become a leading cause of death worldwide. Loss, as a more encompassing theme, interweaves many aspects of people's life in this challenging time. Failure to address the pressing needs of those experiencing loss and grief may result in poor mental and physical health. Recognizing the uniqueness of each individual and their loss and grief will provide opportunities to develop tailored strategies that facilitate functional adaptation to loss and promote mental health and wellbeing in this crisis.

Disenfranchised grief and Covid-19: How do we make it less painful?

The devastating effects of death due to Covid-19 on the bereaved are not adequately addressed. The grief associated with death during the Covid-19 pandemic is disenfranchised and complicated and has significant repercussions on the bereaved. The lockdown, social distancing norms, isolation due to disease or quarantine and infectivity of the disease, place restrictions on the traditional mourning practices. Misconceptions also play a role. Dignity and ethics are frequently breached, perhaps inadvertently. This can lead to serious mental and physical health consequences. We explore the complexities and suggest measures for acknowledging the grief and making it less painful. Pragmatic suggestions to avoid emotional distancing and to uphold the dignity and rights of the deceased and the bereaved are highlighted with examples which can be emulated.

Grief: The Epidemic Within an Epidemic.

COVID-19 has not only dramatically changed the way we live, it has also impacted how we die and how we grieve. With more and more Americans dying in ICU settings, away from family, and more funerals being held virtually, the pandemic has seriously curtailed normal expressions of grief and cultural mourning. Given the CDC guidelines for funerals and social distancing, simple human touch is no longer a mitigating force against prolonged grief. So, while one epidemic has a face and a name, we point to a second, more silent yet potentially equally devastating one, unacknowledged grief, and emphasize how policy can be a current therapeutic. We can wait for a vaccine, but we can also act now through thoughtful policymaking that acknowledges this second epidemic.

Prolonged grief related to COVID-19 deaths: Do we have to fear a steep rise in traumatic and disenfranchised griefs?

The circumstances of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-related deaths embed multiple traumatic characteristics, alongside several external factors that can disenfranchise individual grief. In this context, severe forms of traumatic distress, guilt, somatization, regret, anger, and unspecific symptoms not yet included in prolonged grief disorder (PGD) criteria could emerge. This article (a) analyzes factors related to bereavement in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; (b) proposes avenues for meaning-making practices to facilitate individual and collective mourning process; and (c) invites clinicians to pay attention to the traumatic characteristics of COVID-19-related deaths adopting a holistic approach of PGD clinical manifestations, as well as in evaluation and treatment of cases. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).