A Massive-Open-Online-Course (MOOC) on death and dying (Dying2Learn) was offered in 2020, designed to build conversations about death as a natural part of life. In week 1, the content focused on how today’s society engages with death through the language we use, humour, public mourning and funerals. This study investigated 2020 MOOC participants’ responses to an online activity reflecting on funerals and memorials during the time of COVID-19. From this activity, n = 204 responses were analysed qualitatively. Themes included the positives and negatives of virtual funeral attendance (e.g. opportunity to have a way to participate when travel barriers existed, versus a sense of impersonal voyeurism); and the challenges related to the inability to physically comfort the bereaved due to physical distancing requirements. Comments made as part of this MOOC activity provide a unique insight into the community’s experience of funeral changes necessitated by COVID-19, with important implications for the grieving process.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8891243

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Funerals: Experiences of Participants in the 2020 Dying2Learn Massive Open Online Course

This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on depressive symptoms and loneliness in older adults, using the Protection Motivation Theory Framework. Using data collected between March 2020 and May 2021 as part of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 2145 adults over age 50), the roles of threat and coping appraisals as predictors of protective health behaviors and, ultimately, mental health outcomes, were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Being at high risk for COVID-19 complications and death was associated with more depressive symptoms and loneliness. Higher levels of concern about COVID-19 were associated with more depressive symptoms while knowing someone who had died of the coronavirus was associated with less loneliness. Lower scores for perceived control over one’s health and social life were associated with more depressive symptoms and higher loneliness. These results suggest that moving forward, mental health assessments should consider the impact of the pandemic and include measures specifically asking about COVID-19 concerns and experiences (e.g., death of close friends or family due to COVID-19, protective health measures). Additionally, future responses to this pandemic and other public health emergencies should consider the influence that self-efficacy has on health behaviors and mental health. The pandemic has raised public awareness of the negative consequences of social isolation and acted to destigmatize mental illness, and this greater awareness could encourage middle-aged and older adults to seek various treatments for depression and loneliness.

/pdf/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-depressive-symptoms-and-loneliness-12pqdi67.pdf

The Impact of COVID-19 on Depressive Symptoms and Loneliness for Middle-Aged and Older Adults

As populations age and pandemics continue, grief disrupts the health and productivity of increasingly bereaved populations. While funerals can reconnect old friends and relations to provide psycho-social support, and satisfying funeral participation reportedly reduces such psychiatric complications of grief, the psychological effects of recent restrictions on funerals remains unclear. This first English report of open-ended responses to a Japan-wide survey sheds some light on this by looking at Japanese psychological reflections on their funerals. To determine what aspects of funerals the Japanese bereaved feel psycho-socially valuable or conversely problematic, and for what reasons. Data were collected using anonymized all-Japan postal surveys from 2019 to 2020. 288 recently-bereaved chief mourners submitted 353 open-ended responses discussing their experiences and feelings about the funerals they conducted. Anonymized data were divided into positive, regrets, vacillations, and negative comments about the subjects most frequently cited. Most commonly cited were funeral directors (64), attendees (56), ritual/ceremony (49), and the need for (pre-)planning (40). Respondents profoundly appreciated funeral directors' support, and regretted not having planned better or invited more people to the funeral. Dissatisfaction tended to focus on unexplained expenses and mistakes or offenses in rituals. Many also criticized their doctors for not realistically forecasting their loved ones' demise. Responses validated that responsive funeral directors can significantly support their clients through early acute grief, and that inviting more celebrants to a full funeral facilitates psycho-social support and may obviate future regrets. Rituals too provide memorable means to help survivors deal with grief. Medical professionals should psychologically encourage terminal patients' families to communicate while patients are still coherent; families are strongly advised to discuss funeral plans with their elders before the end of life. 

How funerals mediate the psycho-social impact of grief: Qualitative analysis of open-ended responses to a national survey in Japan


Patchwork ethnography is a viable methodological and theoretical approach. Fieldwork can be accessible, achievable and accommodating of both personal and professional circumstances and responsibilities of the researcher, and external factors such as living within a COVID-19 world. In this article, we explain patchwork ethnography and showcase how the methodology was implemented during the first author's PhD fieldwork conducted in 2020–2021 relating to peeking behind the physical and metaphorical curtains of the death industry to understand the handling, management and conceptualisation of the dead human body in Adelaide, South Australia. We demonstrate how field sites were constructed and discuss the methodological tools utilised to produce an ethnographic experience. We also question the ongoing viability of notions of ‘traditional’ fieldwork practices.

/pdf/peeking-behind-the-curtains-3m7uuqyx.pdf

Peeking Behind the Curtains

Livestreaming and filming death rites and funeral ceremonies to enable remote engagement proliferated rapidly during the COVID19 pandemic, and many expect these options to remain prevalent going forward. This paper draws on interviews with a diverse UK sample of 68 bereaved people, funeral directors, officiants and celebrants. It illustrates how, and explains why, people’s experiences and evaluations of hybrid funerals can vary. In a context when in-person gatherings were limited, hybridisation played a valuable role in enabling more people to engage with funerals. However, virtual attendance was often considered less satisfying than in-person attendance because it did not enable people to participate well in the funeral activities that mattered to them or to participate with others as they would in person. Scope for participation was partly contingent on the functionality and use made of technology, including whether and which steps were taken to facilitate engagement and a sense of connection for those joining online. People’s evaluations of hybrid funerals could also reflect their relationships to the deceased and their frames of reference – for example, whether they were comparing virtual attendance to attending in person, or to being unable to attend at all, or to an overwhelmingly large funeral.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2023.2201421

Hybrid funerals: how online attendance facilitates and impedes participation

The COVID-19 pandemic and physical distancing limitations have had a profound impact on funeral practices and associated grieving processes. The purpose of the present scoping review is to summarize the existing literature on the emerging use of virtual funerals. Five medical databases, five social science databases, and five grey literature databases were searched, identifying 1,351 titles and abstracts, of which 62 met inclusion criteria. Four themes, each with various subthemes emerged: (a) Impact of virtual funerals on coping with death; (b) Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the funeral industry; (c) Benefits and disadvantages of virtual funerals; and (d) Future implications for health and social work practitioners. Virtual funerals are an evolving resource for individuals, families, and communities to mourn in response to the interruptions to traditional grieving practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00302228211045288

Jacqueline Ho

Papers

Exploring the Use of Virtual Funerals during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review.