Bereavement
What does bereavement and grief support look like in practice?
The Bereavement page of the ELDAC Care Model provides an overview of bereavement support in clinical practice, exploring how grief and bereavement is experienced, how to practically support families, and where you can find further information.
Grief and bereavement support for older people should attend to their spiritual, cultural and psychosocial needs and include the provision of information and support about the dying process, loss and bereavement to family and carers. [1]
What is my role as a primary care professional in providing grief and bereavement support?
Grief and bereavement support is an important element of primary care. [2] For many older people, the pathway to support following a death begins with a visit to their GP.[3] Older people without significant family support may also depend on clinicians in primary care for support when grieving [4]. Yet there is a risk of bereavement needs may be hidden or missed for various reasons [5], including:
- Older people may present in settings of primary care with physical symptoms that initially seem unrelated to grief, such as sleeping problems, weight changes, breathing issues and cardiovascular symptoms. [4]
- There can be a tendency to assume that older people have experienced multiple losses and are therefore more resilient [5] and not in need of additional care. Trusting and established relationships between older people and clinicians in primary care can be protective and facilitate helpful support in bereavement. [6]
We want you to be equipped to:
- Understand your role and responsibilities as a primary care professional in providing grief and bereavement support.
- Confidently identify the difference between typical responses to grief and complex forms of grief – including Prolonged Grief Disorder, and other poor mental health outcomes. This includes identifying when to refer for specialised support, such as Specialist Bereavement Counselling.
- Recognise and self-manage your own experiences of grief or bereavement following the death of an older person in your care
- Consider and prepare for the needs of diverse population groups in experiences of grief and bereavement.
- Support the families, friends and carers of the older person by providing information and resources on death, dying, after-death, bereavement, loss, and grief.
Loss, grief and bereavement
NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation
This video provides an overview of loss, grief and bereavement in palliative care, defining key terminology, risk factors for consideration, and models of bereavement counselling.
Prolonged Grief Disorder Questionnaire (PG-13R) (903kb pdf)
Center for Research on End-of-Life Care
This tool has been developed to help health professionals identify Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) following the experience of a death (i.e. >6 months post-death), where a person may require further clinical assessment and specialist intervention.
Resources for Clinicians
Center for Research on End-of-Life Care
This webpage includes a series of videos of clinician-patient interactions across different forms of grief, including normal grief, Prolonged Grief Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Depressive Disorder.
Common ELDAC Clinical Tools
ELDAC
ELDAC has developed a resource of commonly utilised tools for support in care delivery, including tools to support identification of mental health concerns that may be exacerbated or arise in the context of grief or bereavement.
Self-Care Room
ELDAC
The self-care room is a place for clinicians working in palliative care and advance care planning to explore, share and use self-care resources to support their wellbeing.
Team Support
ELDAC Primary Care Toolkit
This section of the Toolkit focuses on ways to support the care team in the delivery of palliative care through knowledge, confidence and capacity building, while also recognising the need to support your own wellbeing as a clinician.
Grief and bereavement
Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet
This webpage provides an evidence-summary of considerations in grief and bereavement for the death of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person.
Grief and Bereavement
ACON
This webpage provides considerations for the death of an LGBTIQ+ person to help support provision, emphasising the importance of end-of-life directives, and recognising there is no one way to experience grief and bereavement. It also provides a series of resources and organisations for further support.
Diverse population groups
ELDAC
ELDAC has compiled a series of information for diversity considerations in palliative care across population groups, including; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Care Leavers, Carers, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse, Financially or socially disadvantaged, Homeless, LGBTI+, Rural and remote, Spirituality and faith, and Veterans.
Caring for diverse populations
ELDAC Primary Care Toolkit
The Support for the older person, family and carer provides additional resources, further education and information on how to identify HealthPathways for diverse populations to support appropriate care.
Support for the older person, family and carer
ELDAC Primary Care Toolkit
This section of the Primary Care Toolkit provides a summary of resources on palliative and end-of-life care to provide to the older person, their family and carer to support them, as well as how to develop feedback mechanisms for ongoing improvement, and providing care to diverse populations.
Get Help
Griefline
Griefline provides a series of services (including education and training, phone support, online forums, and resources and information) on grief, bereavement and loss to support normalising grief and prevent poor mental health outcomes. Services are both for providers, and for older people, families and carers.