Non-COVID-19 related dying and death during the pandemic

ABSTRACT

When the impact of the larger context of a pandemic threatens to overwhelm the individual's grief experience, maladaptation in bereavement would be a likely outcome. People affected by non-COVID-19 dying and deaths are at risk of disenfranchised grief, in addition to the multiple demands and stressors that stretch their ability to cope. The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. It brought with it multiple demands and stressors, that could challenge the pre-loss meaning structures of the bereaved, causing a dissonance that would drive the bereaved in a search for meaning. Health and community care professionals should focus on mitigating the risk of maladaptive grief contributed by the pandemic situation, by recognising the patient and the family as a unit of care, attempting to be the conduit to enable the participation of family members throughout the illness trajectory of their loved ones. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)