Investing in bereavement care as a public health priority is advocated in a paper published in prestigious journal The Lancet Public Health, with input from Research Chair in Palliative Care Professor Samar Aoun AM (Perron Institute and The University of Western Australia).
The lead author is Dr Wendy Lichtenthal PhD, Bereavement Care, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Health System, USA.
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, the authors say.
Although bereavement support is a component of palliative care, continuity of care for bereaved individuals is often not standard practice in palliative and end-of-life contexts.
The article, titled Investing in Bereavement Care as a Public Health Priority: A Transitional Care Model, goes on to say that 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.
Building on available evidence, the authors make the case for establishing bereavement care services within health-care institutions, while respecting their finite resources, and the need to transition grieving families to supports within their communities.
Key to the transitional bereavement care model, according to the authors, 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.
Professor Aoun’s research on supporting family caregivers at end of life and the public health approach to bereavement care have informed policy and practice at national and international levels. She has received national and international recognition for her exceptional commitment to promoting improving engagement and health outcomes in this field.
Most recently, she was awarded the 2025 Australia Day honours as Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the General Division for significant service to community health through palliative care and aged care research, and to tertiary education.
She is the co-founder and chair of the South West Compassionate Communities Network and chair of the national body Compassionate Communities Australia.
Other authors are: Dr William Rosa and Kailey Roberts (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA), Dr Leigh Donovan (University of New South Wales), Professor Lauren Breen (Curtin University), and Dr Stephen Connor PhD (Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance, London, UK).