'Pandemic grief' proves especially devastating and complex for many in mourning, health experts say

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From The Washington Post, By Cathy Alter, March 28, 2021 at 8:45 a.m. EDT

Psychologists Sherman A. Lee and Robert Neimeyer recently surveyed more than 800 American adults who had lost a loved one to covid-19. What they found was alarming, they report in a paper just published in the journal Death Studies.

Two thirds of respondents described a grief that was anguishing, preoccupying and dysfunctional, in the sense that it seriously impaired their ability to manage their children’s needs, function in intimate relationships or perform adequately in their work roles.

What’s more, both the raw pain of their grief and their struggle with feeling impaired in these important social contexts were directly related to 10 specific “risk factors.” In a second study, Neimeyer and Lee identified those risk factors associated with the circumstances of the death, which they say include distress about their loved one dying alone, feeling isolated by social distancing guidelines, and being disappointed by the quality of the funeral or memorial service.

All of these factors contributed to what Lee and Neimeyer termed “pandemic grief” to acknowledge the unique challenges of loving and losing someone in the current crisis.

Read here.