Understanding Grief During the First-Wave of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom-A Hypothetical Approach to Challenges and Support.

Chao Fang,Alastair Comery

doi:10.3389/fsoc.2021.607645

Abstract

Purpose: This article develops immediate understandings of loss and grief at both an individual and collective level following the first-wave of COVID-19 in the UK. This allows for insights into the likely challenges and support for loss and grief in facing unprecedented disruption and uncertainty. Ultimately, it explores avenues for the priorities to inform better bereavement support.Methods: By examining trusted media data and carefully selected academic literature, we analyse both individual and societal responses to loss and grief in the novel context of the first-wave of COVID-19 in the UK. The discussion relocates the ideas of good and bad deaths in the context of increased social constrains and inequalities. Further, two pairs of contrasting hypotheses are proposed to examine how the UK's first-wave outbreak has shaped policy and practical structures and how these have further impacted experiences of loss and grief both at an individual and collective level.Findings: The discussion captures a mixed picture of loss and grief in the UK, which highlights the importance of timely, holistic, and continuous support both in social policy and care provision. It is found that individuals and collectives express diverse needs in response to deaths and losses as a process of meaning-making. Further, the significance of socio-cultural environments also become evident. These findings highlight community support during the outbreak and further promote a grief literate culture as imperative to support individual and collective needs when confronted with loss and grief.Conclusion: This article provides a timely and comprehensive account of possible challenges and support both for individual and collective experiences of loss and grief at a time of unprecedented social restrictions and mass deaths in the UK. These understandings provide a base from which we advocate the priorities for future research into the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on grief and bereavement.

Highlights

COVID-19 has claimed over 40,000 lives in the first wave outbreak in the United Kingdom (Office for National Statistics, 2020a)
Uncertainties and isolation faced in the first wave COVID-19 outbreak, it is not unreasonable to speculate that death, dying and bereavement in the UK could be greatly impacted
To capture an immediate picture of experiences of loss during the first COVID-19 outbreak in the UK, we focus on the socio-emotional dynamics of grief, exploring how individuals, and wider society have mediated their emotional responses to loss through the available socio-cultural discourses

Summary

Introduction

COVID-19 has claimed over 40,000 lives in the first wave outbreak (approximately between March to June, 2020) in the United Kingdom (Office for National Statistics, 2020a). First reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019, this highly infectious new coronavirus was first confirmed in the UK in late January 2020 It soon spread across the country resulting in a sharp increase in the number of hospitalizations and deaths. Despite the extraordinary levels of social disconnection and constraints seen during the first wave, bereaved people may receive more support, both practical and emotional, from kin, friends, neighbors, and the wider society because of interpersonal bonds and social solidarity. These positive and supportive responses may be seen at a more collective level through the heroisation of deaths and public mourning. Responses to losses and deaths in the context of COVID-19 in the UK are individual and societal

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