Grief in the times of COVID-19: Challenges to mental health care during the pandemics

Abstract

The present article discusses universal and particular aspects of the mourning process during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on clinical listening of families who lost relatives at our inpatient service. First, we describe the type of care offered by the APEM-COVID group at the General Hospital of the University of Campinas. Then we present different theoretical approaches to grieving and finally discuss specific elements of grief noticed during the pandemic. Excerpts extracted from clinical appointments relate to and challenge theoretical aspects, shedding light on the importance of the specific type of care provided to patients and its potential to build knowledge.