Development and initial test of the self-report grief and bereavement assessment.

Implementing evidence-based and cost-effective bereavement care is a challenge. A self-report measure could assist to identify caregivers at-risk of prolonged grief. We developed a new measure via five steps: identification of risk and protective factors for prolonged grief, item generation, consultation with an expert panel ( = 8), review by the academic team and expert panel, and a pilot test with family caregivers ( = 19) from three palliative care services.

Developing a practice-based research agenda for grief and bereavement care.

We aimed to identify practitioners' perspectives on current research priorities in grief and bereavement care. Grief and bereavement care providers were invited to participate in a three-phase Delphi study to create expert consensus on the top priorities for grief and bereavement research. A total of 140 participants completed Phase 1, 84 completed Phase 2, and 70 completed Phase 3.

The association between gratitude and burden in Australian mental health carers: a cross-sectional study.

The level of carer burden has increased as carers take on more responsibility for mental health consumers as a result of the contemporary shift in the delivery of services from institutional to community settings. Interventions are required to mitigate mental health carer burden. Therefore, we examined the association between dispositional gratitude and burden in a cross-sectional survey of 231 Australian mental health carers.

Exploring barriers to assessment of bereavement risk in palliative care: perspectives of key stakeholders.

Background: Palliative care standards advocate support for grieving caregivers, given that some bereaved people fail to integrate their loss, experience ongoing emotional suffering and adverse health outcomes. Research shows that bereavement support tends to be delivered on an ad hoc basis without formal assessment of risk or need. To align support with need, assessment of bereavement risk is necessary.

A scoping review of bereavement risk assessment measures: Implications for palliative care.

Background: Palliative care standards and policies recommend that bereavement support be provided to family caregivers, yet uncertainty surrounds whether support currently offered by palliative care services throughout developed countries meets caregiver needs. The public health model of bereavement support, which aligns bereavement support needs with intervention, may address this gap between policy and practice.

Aim: The aim was to review the literature to identify bereavement risk assessment measures appropriate for different points in the caring and bereavement trajectories, evaluate their psychometric properties and assess feasibility for use in palliative care.