Families grieving for relatives who succumbed to terminal illnesses can benefit from a new grief and bereavement care service being piloted by palliative care providers.
Iddi Matovu, a Public Health Specialist at Kitovu Mobile in Masaka, explained that they embarked on research to support caregivers and relatives after realizing many suffer profound agony and sometimes full-blown mental illness following the loss of a loved one.
Last year, the facility lost 35 clients under palliative care. In response, they trained community health workers, collaborating with clinical psychologists in Zimbabwe to develop a comprehensive bereavement package.
Matovu emphasized the importance of this initiative in preventing mental illness resulting from unresolved grief.
Mark Donald Mwesiga, the Executive Director at the Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU), highlighted that bereavement care is crucial as traditional mourning practices decline due to socio-economic changes.
Speaking during a PCAU donation event celebrating their 25th anniversary, Mwesiga noted that they have been equipping palliative care providers with skills to support grieving families through appropriate counseling. He also mentioned that hospices are collecting data to guide the nationwide rollout of this care.
Rev. Canon Diana Nkesiga pointed out that the need for such care emerged during the peak of the HIV crisis when rapid, successive deaths overwhelmed the clergy, leaving little time to guide caregivers and relatives through the grieving process. This situation put immense pressure on grandmothers, leading many to succumb to stress.
Nkesiga stressed that bereavement care should be tailored to individual needs, offering different interventions for a mother who has lost a child versus a teenager or a baby who has lost a parent. She emphasized that grief support could involve listening, helping manage anger, or encouraging self-care practices.
Nkesiga also shared her experience working with children who lost parents to HIV in South Africa, where she wrote a book titled “Talking to God When Life Is Not Fair” to aid in grieving. She witnessed many children overcome their pain and adjust healthily.
In addition to palliative care providers offering this service, private providers are also establishing grief clinics, highlighting the growing recognition of the importance of bereavement care within the larger palliative care framework.