Bereavement Care Information

Bereavement care is designed to assist you in recognizing your strengths, navigating difficulties, managing stressors, and developing coping skills essential for adapting to a significant loss in your life. While many individuals use the terms grief and bereavement interchangeably, they carry distinct meanings. Grief is a natural response to loss, while bereavement specifically refers to the period following a loss during which you undergo the experience of grief. Understanding this distinction is crucial, as loss is an inevitable part of life, and everyone will encounter grief in response to various losses. This is where the value of bereavement care becomes evident.

What does bereavement care entail?

A well-designed bereavement care program aids in comprehending your responses to loss and extends support to help you navigate through grief. Emotional, physical, social, and spiritual reactions are common, including emotions like anger, guilt, anxiety, sadness, and despair. Physical responses may manifest as sleep disturbances, changes in appetite, physical ailments, or illness. Importantly, each person's response to loss is unique. Trained bereavement professionals can assess your coping mechanisms and provide education and support. Learning about grief, understanding its impact, identifying coping strategies, and acquiring new methods for navigating the grief experience often leave individuals feeling strengthened, encouraged, and supported. For those grappling with complicated grief, a bereavement care professional can identify the need for more comprehensive support.

How to find bereavement care

Locating bereavement care services is often possible through community hospice programs, which are valuable resources within local communities. While hospice programs primarily focus on patients and their families, they frequently extend support to individuals in the broader community who may not have directly received hospice care services. If a hospice's bereavement program cannot fulfill your specific needs, they can often guide you toward other community resources.

Bereavement care under hospice care

Under the Medicare hospice benefit, family caregivers or those closely connected to a hospice patient have access to bereavement care for 13 months following the patient's death. Services offered include support groups, memorial services, informational and educational resources, counseling, and referrals to relevant therapeutic and community resources. These hospice bereavement programs cater to the diverse needs of individuals, aiming to facilitate healthy grieving and prevent grief-related health and mental health issues.