ReviewThe Lancet. Public health2024
Investing in bereavement care as a public health priority.
Review in The Lancet. Public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 42 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Family Bereavement Support Interventions in Specialist Adult Palliative Care: A Rapid Mixed-Methods Systematic Review.Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Pooled it
- Risk factors for poor bereavement outcomes and the support needs of adult bereaved refugees within the psychosocial-cultural concept of personhood: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Pooling data from studies on prolonged grief: the Multi-region Archive of Research data on Bereavement and Loss from Empirical Studies (MARBLES) project.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- 'Children first?' - the conflicting roles of carers for children bereaved by suicide or homicide.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Hospice Use and Spiritual Support for Family and Friend Caregivers at the End of Life and During Bereavement.The American journal of hospice & palliative care · 2026Observational
- Attitudes toward bereavement support and associated factors in the Japanese population: a cross-sectional study.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Development of the 'Culturally Informed Ecological Model of Grief' - a national qualitative study of bereavement experiences among ethnically diverse communities.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Navigating the interplay between feelings of failure and newfound kindness: a qualitative study exploring the experiences of cancer bereaved fathers.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Prolonged Grief Disorder, but Not Death From COVID-19, Elicits Public Stigma: A Vignette-Based Experiment.Omega · 2026Article
- Shifting to online and telephone bereavement support provision during the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed methods study of bereavement service provider perspectives and lessons learnt for current practice.Palliative medicine · 2026Article
- Comparing user satisfaction with grief-informed texts to other types of bereavement support in the United Kingdom.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Responding to grief-related needs in older adults: protocol for a community-based matched-care trial (GriefDiff).BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Exploring challenges and opportunities in paediatric bereavement care: a qualitative study from a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Navigating the minority grief paradox: racial-ethnic differences on parental death, social ties and early-midlife psychological distress in the United States.Longitudinal and life course studies : international journal · 2026Article
- German-language adaptation of the Bereavement Risk Assessment Tool (BRAT): findings on the inter-rater reliability.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Bereavement practices within older adult care homes in Scotland: a focus group study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- A nature-based intervention for bereaved friend and family cancer caregivers: a study protocol.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Diagnosis of prolonged grief disorder among older adults: mapping physicians' knowledge and practice, and evaluating the effectiveness of a brief targeted training program.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- The 'equity turn' and bereavement: From rhetoric to realisation.Palliative care and social practice · 2026Article
- Editorial: Exploring bereavement and public health: the role of family and friend caregivers in community well-being.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Morbidity and mortality associated with bereavement is an important public health issue, yet economic and resource investments to effectively implement and sustain integrated bereavement services are sorely lacking at national and global levels. Although bereavement support is a component of palliative care provision, continuity of care for bereaved individuals is often not standard practice in palliative and end-of-life contexts. In addition to potentially provoking feelings of abandonment, failure to extend family-centred care after a patient's death can leave bereaved families without access to crucial psychosocial support and at risk for illnesses that exacerbate the already substantial public health toll of interpersonal loss. The effect of inadequate bereavement care disproportionately disadvantages vulnerable groups, including those living in resource-constrained settings. We build on available evidence and previous recommendations to propose a model for transitional care, firmly establishing bereavement care services within health-care institutions, while respecting their finite resources and the need to ultimately transition grieving families to supports within their communities. Key to the transitional bereavement care model is the bolstering of community-based supports through development of compassionate communities and upskilling of professional services for those with more substantial bereavement support needs. To achieve this goal, interprofessional health workers, institutions, and systems must shift bereavement care from an afterthought to a public health priority.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.