Background Information:

Bereavement in Western society
Bereavement is often referred to as one of the last great taboos in Western society where ideas about death, grief and mourning are constantly changing. This is in response to different ways of viewing the world as a result of education, scientific and medical discovery and technical and economic progress. Living in a multicultural society, people are also exposed to a range of views, customs and practices relating to bereavement which may themselves be in transition.

Bereavement, grief and mourning
Bereavement is generally thought of as the objective status of having lost someone or something. Grief refers to the emotions that accompany bereavement, and mourning, the behaviour social groups express following bereavement. Both are culturally specific and can have a public and private face. They may meet the needs of individuals or they may not. Personal grief and the culture in which people live are intimately bound together.

Changing ideas
In Western society one of the dominant ideas about grief in the twentieth century was that it was eventually resolved by detaching from the person, letting go and moving on. This has been challenged in recent years by academic researchers and bereaved people themselves, many of whom describe the process of transforming the relationship, keeping hold, and moving on.

In the last century, death and bereavement were increasingly handled by outsiders – medical and other professionals and providers. Current publications on bereavement emphasize the variety of ways in which people conduct funerals, grieve and mourn in the Western world. For some, choice and diversity can offer opportunities, be helpful and reassuring, for others the idea of ritual and knowing what is expected by a specific group can also provide reassurance.

Emotional responses to loss
The very nature of bereavement results in strong emotions that can be hidden, expressed or both. Fear, anger, guilt, denial, isolation, inability to cope are some of the emotions experienced. Grief results in a stress response that has implications for physical and mental health and personal behaviour. People can find it difficult to find a language to talk about how they feel and others can be at a loss as how to reach out to help the bereaved.

Young people, death and bereavement
This may not be a subject many young people in the 14–19 age group immediately recognise as relevant to their lives. For those who have personal experience of loss the subject can be closed and private. For those who haven’t, it may be perceived as just a concept, distant, alien, even fearful.

Dealing with the death of someone close is a very difficult thing for anyone to go through and can be particularly so for young people, completely unprepared and coping with teenage transitions. There is a need therefore for educational process which increases understanding about death and bereavement, allows for exploration of the issues from the perspective of young people and contributes to their personal, social and emotional development in a way that has the potential to help them cope with bereavement.