Professionals' Experiences of Grief Counseling: Implications for Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice

Abstract

Despite the escalating interest in grief interventions, there is a clear misalignment between contemporary grief research and grief counseling practices, and this disparity may limit intervention effectiveness. Semi-structured interviews with 19 grief counselors revealed their current practices of grief counseling. The counselors' descriptions of grief and their grief counseling practices were diverse and many were influenced by classic grief theories and the grief work hypothesis. The grief counselors described negotiating several issues and dilemmas in their work and provided recommendations for achieving greater exchange between research and practice. The findings have the potential to inform the delivery, efficacy, and relevance of grief counseling in Western Australia.

Rural health professionals’ perspectives on providing grief and loss support in cancer care

“…This study provides a description of the challenges faced by health professionals who provide cancer grief and loss support in regional, rural, and remote areas of WA. The findings support those identified in previous studies and reviews demonstrating the challenges in providing grief and loss supports, particularly the gap between research and practice (Center for the Advancement of Health 2004; Bridging Work Group 2005), difficulties in accessing continuing professional development opportunities in relation to grief and loss (Breen 2011), and the difficulties in optimising efficacy of grief and loss services with limited funding and staffing resources (Penson et al 2002;Field et al 2007), and the provision of evidence-based bereave-ment care (Aoun et al 2012). These challenges are likely to be of growing concern given that populations are declining in rural areas as Australia becomes increasingly urban (ABS 2011).…”

“…For instance, research in the UK has highlighted bereavement counselling as a challenge in general practice (Shipman et al 2001). Studies focussed on exploring the practice of health professionals in providing grief and loss supports demonstrates that their ability to provide appropriate supports is limited by their lack of knowledge and limited access to suitable information Wiles et al 2002;Breen 2011). Furthermore, health professionals do not always have access to training and professional development opportunities in relation to loss, grief, and appropriate interventions (Dickinson 2007).…”

“…; Wiles et al . ; Breen ). Furthermore, health professionals do not always have access to training and professional development opportunities in relation to loss, grief, and appropriate interventions (Dickinson ).…”

Reported experiences of bereavement support in Western Australia: a pilot study

“…The findings of this pilot study and extensive participant feedback support the feasibility and acceptability of the survey questions and provide a good indication that the objectives of the larger population-based study can be achieved, in terms of describing the demographic characteristics of bereaved people, experience and impact of caring and bereavement, and satisfaction with support 12 [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] seven (30.4%) met one criterion (one did not complete this section). All met the event criterion (bereavement), 56.5% the separation criterion, 52.2% the duration criterion (experiencing symptoms at least daily and after six months from loss), 30.4% the social/ functional impairment criterion and 4.3% the cognitive, emotional and behavioural impairment criterion.…”

Grief and Loss Education: Recommendations for Curricular Inclusion

“…In addition to issues related to death and dying, grief and loss as a broad concept encompasses countless facets of human experience, such as normative life‐cycle transitions, divorce, substance abuse and recovery, illness, trauma, and career change. Grief and loss course work, however, is not specifically required in most counselor education programs (Breen, 2010), and counselor educators may be reluctant to engage in teaching these courses because of a number of factors, including their own attitudes, religious beliefs, and lack of training (Eckerd, 2009).…”