Background
The terms bereavement and mourning are closely related to grief, but they have slightly different meanings. Bereavement is the period of grieving experienced after a person has died. Mourning is the outward expression of sorrow for the loss, often influenced by cultural customs and rituals. Grief is the process of responding to a loss and it can affect all parts of a person’s life. [3,9,10]
Evidence Summary
The terms grief and bereavement are often used interchangeably and are not always clearly defined in the literature. [4] A wide range of studies have identified negative health outcomes for older adults associated with bereavement. [6-8] There is concern for the effects of grief in older adults who are also experiencing declines in physical, mental, and cognitive health by virtue of their age. [1]
Grief associated with bereavement may be compounded by an extended period of grieving prior to the physical loss of a person. [1,11] Often termed ‘anticipatory grief’, this can include feelings of loneliness, sadness, pain, remorse, self-blame, relief, anger, and betrayal. [1,2,11] The relationship of bereavement with anticipatory grief and of preparedness for death have been investigated since the 1970s. Pre-loss grief and low preparedness appear to be risk factors of adverse bereavement outcomes. [3]
Complicated grief also termed prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is experienced by a person who feels ‘stuck’ in grief for a prolonged period and finds it hard to manage the tasks of daily living. [5] Prolonged grief disorder (PGD), an emerging term in the literature, is newly classified in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). It is a syndrome characterised by intense yearning, separation distress and a sense of meaningless which persist for more than 6 months after the death. [2,3] At high risk for complicated grief/PGD are spousal/partner carers, carers who experience pre-death depression, and carers of lower socioeconomic background. [2] These characteristics corroborate with those discussed in the experience of carer burden.
Understanding bereavement and how to support positive health behaviours of older adults is an important endeavour and consistent with the philosophy of palliative care. It is thought that bereavement services pre- and post-loss are helpful in managing grief and resilience [4,6,7,12] but the exact nature of such strategies is not known. Older adults who demonstrate more resilience in bereavement often employ coping strategies such as keeping busy, maintaining routines, particularly social activities and practising religious beliefs and rely heavily on their social network for support. [2,11]
The experience of bereavement is not well studied in a residential aged care context. It appears for those who place a relative with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia in aged care, grief is more likely to be associated with feelings of guilt and loneliness. [4] Families of older adults who die in residential aged care are also less likely to be referred for hospice or palliative care services which may also impact on how caregivers experience anticipatory and post-loss grief. [4] Clearly, more research on how to support carer grief and bereavement, particularly in an aged care context, is required and may guide development of palliative care services.
Quality Statement
Overall, the quality of the ten systematic reviews that contributed to this summary was acceptable, with limitations generally arising from lack of reporting on methodology or quality of included studies.
Page updated 27 May 2021