The traumatic death of a significant person is an underappreciated adverse life event. Unresolved grief from traumatic death is associated with complicated grief (CG) in adulthood and both contribute to and sustain serious mental illness in adulthood. Persons diagnosed with serious mental illness experiencing CG represent vulnerable persons for whom traditional care is therapeutically insufficient, when the trauma of underlying grief is unaddressed. We examined the feasibility and impact of community implementation of Complicated Grief Group Therapy for persons diagnosed with serious mental illness with CG. Program completers showed statistically significant improvement in grief measures and interpersonal wellbeing.
KEYWORDSGrief; complicated grief; group therapy; intervention; community-based; trauma
BackgroundIn 2019, there were an estimated 51.5 million adults aged 18 years or older in the United States with any mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder. This number represented 20.6% of all U.S. adults (National Survey on Drug Use and Health; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, [SAMHSA] 2019). Persons diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI), those having enduring, life-impairing mood and thought disorders, represent 5.2% of adults in America. This represents an estimated 13.1 million adults aged 18 years or older in the United States with serious mental illness (SMI). This number represented 5.2% of all U.S. adults. By definition, SMI is mental health disorder that causes serious functional impairment. Prevalence of SMI was higher among females (6.5%) than males (3.9%), and younger adults aged 18-25 years had the highest prevalence of SMI (8.6%) compared to adults aged 26-49 years (6.8%) and aged 50 and older (2.9%) (National Survey on Drug
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