Psychosocial Demands in Death Care During COVID-19 Pandemic: Qualitative Study on Italian Workers

Abstract

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the long-established approach to death. Among the workers who suffered most from the effects of this new situation are those in death care, who had to take care of the disposal of bodies throughout the pandemic. This study explores the experiences of these professionals to better understand the difficulties they faced in their daily work during the first wave of the pandemic. The narratives of 29 Italian death care professionals were collected. The data were analysed using Template Analysis, and four main themes were identified: the changes in funeral practices, the management of the increased workload, stigmatisation and a lack of support. The results of this study have also shown that institutions and the public know too little about the death care system, a factor that significantly influenced the difficulties faced by these professionals in coping with the pandemic.