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Grieving during the COVID-19 pandemic: A national study of experiences of bereavement and the response of bereavement services Dr Lucy Selman, University of Bristol
Event details
Grief: A Study of Human Emotional Experience Lecture
People bereaved during the COVID-19 crisis have faced extraordinary challenges: COVID-19 deaths are often sudden and unexpected, infection control measures have limited contact prior to death, social support and mourning practices have been profoundly disrupted, and the threat of the virus remains omnipresent. In many ways, COVID-19 conflicts with our cultural conceptions of a ‘good’ death and grief, as reflected and enforced by news media. In this new and challenging context, bereavement services have transformed their support, innovating and adapting to try to meet clients’ needs. In this presentation, Dr Lucy Selman will present findings from current research into grief and bereavement during the pandemic.
About the speaker
Dr Lucy Selman is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, where she co-leads the Palliative and End of Life Care Research Group. Her research over the last 16 years has focussed on people’s experiences of serious illness, the end of life and bereavement, and how to improve care in these domains. She is currently co-Principal Investigator (with Dr Emily Harrop, Cardiff University) on a national study of bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, as well as conducting a fellowship funded by the National Institute of Health Research. Dr Selman is also the founder of Good Grief, a festival which launched in October 2020, and the ongoing Grief Channel: www.grief-channel.com