COVID-19 and grief
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Health system barriers
Grief is commonly under-recognized and unsupported in healthcare systems and settings. This is reinforced by:
Personal barriers
COVID-19
In certain health systems, COVID-19 amplifies the likelihood of unrecognized grief as workloads increase due staff shortages, patient admissions, procedural changes, and often limited resources. It is difficult to process work-related grief when we are in survival mode.
Recognizing grief is the first step in learning how to move through grief.
COVID-19 and grief
Chapter 3: Grief and COVID-19
Unrecognized grief
What the grief expert says
Dr. Ken Doka, international grief expert, discusses the unrecognized grief people working in healthcare often experience. (3:22)Video transcript
“I read a quote recently - ‘some things can’t be fixed, they can only be carried’. Sometimes I wonder how much more I can carry with me.” – Emergency and on-call doctor
Grief for people working in healthcare is largely unacknowledged and unrecognized. This is known as disenfranchised or unrecognized grief. This can occur when the grief a person is experiencing isn't recognized or validated. It may be a person, a workplace, a society or a culture that doesn't recognize the grief. Unrecognized grief may also include:- Grief that is not death-related, such as financial loss, job loss, loss of the world as we know it
- If the relationship between the person grieving and the deceased is not recognized or understood
Health system barriers
Grief is commonly under-recognized and unsupported in healthcare systems and settings. This is reinforced by:
- Professional norms of practice - healthcare providers may think it is unprofessional to show grief
- Health systems that don't make grief a priority- there is no time or space for employees to attend to their work-related grief
- Lack of resources, including education and supports - lack of onsite counselling, a place to gather one's thoughts, onsite training and continuing education
Personal barriers
- When we have experiences, thoughts, or feelings that our colleagues do not seem to have, it can create a barrier between us and them. This can add to a sense of isolation.
- We may feel that our grief is ‘not like’ everyone else’s, leading us to question or doubt ourselves.
COVID-19
In certain health systems, COVID-19 amplifies the likelihood of unrecognized grief as workloads increase due staff shortages, patient admissions, procedural changes, and often limited resources. It is difficult to process work-related grief when we are in survival mode.
Recognizing grief is the first step in learning how to move through grief.