3.3.1 Bereaved vs Non-Bereaved Participants
Perceptions of dying, death, and bereavement were compared for bereaved participants and non-bereaved participants. Almost half of bereaved participants (N=599, 49.1%) reported the pandemic changed their views on dying, death, and bereavement a lot or quite a lot. Meanwhile, only 26.4% (N=151) of non-bereaved participants reported that the pandemic changed their views a lot or quite a lot. Over 60% of bereaved participants (N=753, 61.9%) reported that they had spoken about death and dying more than usual or a lot more than usual since the pandemic while 42.1% (N=241) of non-bereaved participants reported the same trend. Almost three quarters of bereaved participants (N=897, 73.6%) agreed or strongly agreed that they had a greater awareness of grief and loss because of the pandemic in contrast to 57.3% of non-bereaved participants (N=329). Similarly, more bereaved participants (N=622, 51.1%) agreed or strongly agreed that they had given more thought to their own end-of-life wishes because of the pandemic in comparison to 37.5% of non-bereaved participants (N=214).
3.4 Survey Participant Reflections
In the survey, participants were provided with an opportunity to respond to free-text questions where they could indicate their reflections and thoughts on their experiences and views of dying, death, and bereavement during the pandemic. roughout the report a selection of these comments have been selected to represent what was shared.
e following three themes emerged in relation to perceptions of dying, death, and bereavement care during the pandemic:
Greater Cognisance of Life and Death Self-Reflection of End-of-Life Wishes Reflecting on the Dying Experience
3.4.1 Greater Cognisance of Life and Death
Some participants highlighted how the pandemic reminded them of the fragile nature of life:
“COVID-19 has brought death into sharp focus, we have a much more acute understanding as to the delicate nature of life, and what it means to be able to celebrate life through our traditional funerals and wakes.”
Participants discussed an inward shift towards existential questions:
“When you see people who are young, fit, and death being the last thing on their mind, passing and in some cases, leaving young families behind it does make you think that this could easily happen to me. And, if it did what would the impact on others be? And have I got all my affairs taken care of, what would others have to deal with on top of grief?”
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