Grief process in family members and significant persons of SARS-CoV-2

• Autor(a) principal: Simões, Graça
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Cunha, Madalena, Santos, Eduardo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.48492/servir0202.27314
• topic: Luto; Infeções por Coronavírus (COVID-19); Família; Mourning; Coronavirus (COVID-19) infections; Family; Duelo; Infecciones por coronavirus (COVID-19); Familia

Introduction: The restrictions imposed by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic make it difficult to experience grief processes and to resolve all its phases as people “lost” the right to accompany their loved ones in the terminal phase and the right to traditional wake rituals. Objective: To identify the conditions under which funeral rituals take place in the context of a SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and to determine the prevalence of pathological mourning. Methods: Observational and descriptive study with a cross-sectional focus. The sampling technique was snowball sampling, consisting of 86 participants, with an ad hoc questionnaire on sociodemographic and grief context variables, and the Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG). Results: 52 participants (60.5%) had a score higher than 25 points in the ICG, showing a process of complicated grief. Although no statistically significant relationship was found between the development of pathological mourning and the conditions under which funeral rituals take place in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, there are strong indications that people who lose relatives and friends to COVID-19 and who find themselves unable to follow up before and after death entail complicated mourning processes. Conclusion: The participants present a high probability of having severe difficulties and the development of complicated mourning processes, so that the psychological support measures that should be implemented include support programs and follow-up of bereaved families, guiding to psychotherapy the people who present persistent symptomatology and seeking at the institutional level to operate behavioral and procedural changes in the management of disease and death processes, within the scope of the pandemic.