Bereavement care: Walking the walk.

Abstract

Bereavement care is quite literally the last thing on the palliative care provider's list. Perhaps this is why—despite being an essential component of palliative care—bereavement support is often inconsistent and inadequate. Despairing family members, defined as those with a personal attachment to the patient—in other words, those “for whom it matters”1—end up falling through the cracks in the system. Guidelines and standards to improve support of grieving families have been proposed,2–4 yet these have not been widely or consistently implemented. Prompted by the spotlight that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has shone on grief and bereavement, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization5 and the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network6 recently called for support of a National Grief Strategy. The goal of the strategy is to broadly increase recognition and resources for bereavement care in the United States, modeled after a similar call in Canada.7 (from Introduction)