COVID-19 and Disenfranchised Grief

Living in a Limbo: A Sociological Study of Missing Funerals, Death Rituals, and Complicated Grief in COVID-19

“…Even one year after these deaths, which were ‘lonely and dehumanised processes for patients and families’ ( Albuquerque et al, 2021 ), this extraordinary bereavement process in isolation kept on adding more predicament to the already arduous and painful grieving experience of losing someone close. More alarming was how the bereaved individuals have still been struggling in accepting the reality and that was getting manifested by recurring pathological conditions, like nightmares, sleep disorders, loss of appetite, and vivid visualisations about mistreatments of the dead bodies of their deceased relatives.…”

“…Comparably, in Kenneth Doka's (2002) idea of disenfranchised grief, the grievers experience difficulties in emotionally processing and expressing the acute sense of loss and often feel the right to grieve as invalidated as their loss is never openly or socially acknowledged, and publicly mourned. In a study of disenfranchised grief in COVID-19-related deaths, it has been concluded that ‘limitations in self-efficacy, choice, and control not only changed the landscape of grief and grieving but pose a significant risk and added burden in the already arduous and painful grieving experience’ as these deaths are ‘in multiple ways lonely and dehumanised processes for patients and families’ ( Albuquerque et al, 2021 ). In this context, disenfranchised grief which the grievers experience because it does not get unrecognised or validated socially, Kauffman (2002) extends this external description of disenfranchised grief into the concept of self-disenfranchisement, in which the individuals find it difficult to recognise their own grief as being legitimate.…”

Death From COVID-19, Muslim Death Rituals and Disenfranchised Grief – A Patient-Centered Care Perspective

“…Modifications of the washing, shrouding, burial, and funeral have an important role in supporting PCC. Congruent to PCC, governmental bodies and professional organizations are called upon to adopt more flexible approaches toward traditional rituals to support the bereaved ( Albuquerque et al, 2021 ).…”

SARS-CoV-2 and the central nervous system: Emerging insights into hemorrhage-associated neurological consequences and therapeutic considerations

“…Most importantly, studies have shown that at least 20−30% of these patients experienced a lingering psychological condition, known as “brain fog,” characterized by many cognitive impairments, including memory loss, difficulty in concentrating, forgetting daily activities, difficulty in selecting the right words, taking longer than usual time to complete a regular task, disoriented thought processes, emotional numbness, or poor endurance occasionally accompanied by headaches, insomnia, dysgeusia, and anosmia ( Graham et al, 2021 , Garrigues et al, 2020 ). Furthermore, hopelessness, social isolation, insomnia, socio-economic burden, COVID-19 infection, imbalance in daily routines along with pre-existing motor and/or cognitive deficits can significantly affect the emotional and behavioral status, known as “hidden sorrow,” of COVID-19 survivors in long-lasting COVID-19 patients ( Pinto et al, 2020 , Albuquerque et al, 2021 ). Notably, researchers have reported that COVID-19 survivors who experience “brain fog” or “dysexecutive syndrome” gradually developed multi-organ abnormalities, such as cardiac and hepatic dysfunctions ( Nauen et al, 2021 ).…”