No vaccine will protect against our grief crisis

Marney Thompson, Maxxine Rattner and others say publicly funded programs needed to help bereaved Canadians.

The holiday season is often a difficult time for those grieving the death of someone they care about. That aching absence will be felt more deeply this year for more than two million bereaved Canadians grieving deaths from all causes, both COVID-19 and NON-COVID-19.

In a pandemic, bereaved Canadians struggle with the impacts of loss and grief, separated from friends and family who provide solace and support. Holiday traditions and rituals, used to support each other and honour people who have died are suspended, creating barriers to a healthy grief process. Canadians are grieving an abundance of other losses, including financial security, sense of community, physical connection, relationships, and so much more.

Three seasons into this pandemic, there has been no comprehensive government response to the growing “crisis within a crisis” of grief. Since May 2020, the Canadian Grief Alliance (CGA) has been calling for a national grief strategy, a public-health, prevention-based approach to the serious mental health outcomes that can arise when pandemic-related grief is left unsupported.

Government spending on mental health services since the pandemic's start has not directly included or addressed the unique and growing needs of grieving Canadians. Grief — our natural response to a significant loss — is not a mental health condition.

The federal government launched a Wellness Together website near the start of the pandemic. It does not include content appropriate for grievers. Messages like “change your feelings,” “think optimistically,” and “behave your way to success,” may mislead grieving individuals to believe they aren't grieving “right,” causing further suffering. When the government says it helps grieving Canadians with its pandemic-related mental health investments, we respectfully but firmly reply with a resounding: How?

As grief specialists and members of the CGA, the reality paints a very different picture. Our cross-country patchwork of highly skilled grief support services and programs that were largely under-resourced before the pandemic is now trying to meet skyrocketing demands. In many parts of the country, there are long wait-lists or a complete absence of grief-specific services.

Without sufficient grief-support programs and services, Canadians' mental health risks will increase. While grief is not a mental health condition, unsupported grief can turn into a mental health condition, such as depression and suicidal thinking.

Racialized communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic are likely the same communities to be disproportionately affected by grief. The need for publicly funded, culturally responsive grief-support programs that centre these communities' needs and voices is particularly significant.

A recent study from Pennsylvania State University found that each death directly impacts nine people. Statistics can easily be glossed over. Instead, take this in: More than 15,000 deaths from COVID-19 so far in Canada, plus just under 220,000 deaths (Statistics Canada, 2019) from other causes, equals nearly 245,000 people, all with their own lives and life stories, who have died since the pandemic's onset. Multiply that number by nine people grieving and that loss equals two million Canadians in mourning.

We urge all levels of government to work together and commit to supporting grieving Canadians now. Now is the time to fund a national grief strategy; one that will increase access to vital grief supports and services in our communities.

A national grief strategy will help to prevent the serious mental health outcomes that can occur when there are factors that complicate a grief process. It will also benefit those grieving any type of loss by providing much-needed public health education on grief and grief-support strategies.

Thompson is director, psychosocial services, Victoria Hospice. Rattner is a PHD candidate, faculty of social work, Wilfrid Laurier University. Andrea Warnick is a registered psychotherapist, Andrea Warnick Consulting. Susan Cadell is a professor of social work, University of Waterloo. Kathy Kortes-miller is associate director, Centre for Education and Research on Aging and Health, Lakehead University. Chris Mackinnon is executive director, Monkland Psychology, Montreal. Serena Lewis is provincial grief and bereavement lead, Nova Scotia Health.