Virtual groups in coping with fear and death during the covid-19 epidemic: Contributions from public health

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a virtual group activity developed during the covid-19 pandemic with 13 university students and professors. Based on a group intervention operating as a conversation network, carried out between May and August 2020, the goal was to offer a safe listening space and to create strategies to cope with the anguish and fear resulting from the pandemic. The group engaged in horizontal dialogue on topics chosen jointly, seeking shared solutions to various problems. This article analyzes the dialogue that took place during meetings where fear was discussed. In these meetings, participants identified the fear of death and loss of loved ones as the feelings that arouse the most suffering, heightened when people are geographically distant. The analysis showed that such meetings and dialogues produced relief and well-being, and that working on a virtual platform did not hinder communication. Intervention groups developed virtually are low-cost yet powerful methodologies, easy to operate and possible to be implemented in the most diverse collectives.