Mental Health: Grief Factors, Online Resources, and Therapy Needs

This essay explores the multifaceted impact of bereavement on mental health, focusing on grief, its influencing factors, and the role of online support resources. It highlights that the death of a family member can lead to severe physical, social, and psychological impairments, potentially resulting in prolonged grief, which is associated with significant sleep disturbances, functional impairment, and increased health risks. Key factors influencing the level of grief include the age and gender of the bereaved, cultural background, relationship with the deceased, financial situation, and cognitive functioning. The essay also examines the benefits and drawbacks of self-help web pages like GriefShare and Grief and Facebook, and the Association of Death Education and Counseling, emphasizing that while online support can be valuable, it cannot replace professional therapy for those at risk of developing persistent grief disorder. Ultimately, identifying factors linked with prolonged grief is crucial for providing adequate support and treatment, ensuring that individuals receive the necessary care from doctors, psychiatrists, or therapists.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH ASSIGNMENT 1
Mental Health Assignment
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Bereavement has been considered as one of the most sentimental events in life. Death of
a family member is linked with severe physical, social, and psychological impairment. Grief may
lead to depression, guilt, anger, shame, blame, impaired immune function, higher risk of
mortality, anxiety among others. Persistent grief is diagnosed at around 6months to 1year after
the death of a loved one (Bassett, 2015). Studies conducted show that about 7% to10% of all
bereaved people develop prolonged grief. Prolonged grief is associated with significant sleep
disturbances, functional impairment, suicidal thoughts, increased risk of cardiovascular diseases
and cancer, drug and substance abuse. Identifying the things associated with prolonged grief and
people at risk is of great significance as it may help identify the most suitable grief therapy.
Factors influencing the level of grief include: first, age of the bereaved has a significant
influence on the degree of grieving (Newsom, Schut, Stroebe, Wilson, Birrell, 2016). Children
and adolescents’ reaction to the death of a family member usually reflects their particular
developmental stage. Second, gender, women tend to suffer from persistent grief more often than
men. Third, cultural background of the person grieving. Forth, relationship between the bereaved
and the loved one. Fifth, financial situation may play a crucial role in younger adults or middle-
aged adults. Also, working class people may face challenges going back to work while suffering
severe grief due to phobia of underachieving. Next, changes in cognitive functioning and
presence of comorbidities.
Internet access has become ubiquitous in the most parts of the world. Self-help web pages
include: GriefShare (www.griefshare.org) and its benefits are, sharing information with a broader
community, one can’t experience another person’s anger, and provide resources to help recover
from grief. The disadvantages are, some people may offer bad advice, incorrect information, and
negativity. Grief and Facebook (www.whatsyourgrief.com) webpage is quick, information can

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reach a broader community in a short time, and one can avoid making painful calls. Facebook
page of the deceased remains active and it becomes a place where people come to pay online
respects. Its disadvantages are, people post inappropriate things, friends and family of the
deceased can post nasty things on the page of the deceased.
Association of Death Education and Counseling (www.adec.org) is a self-help webpage.
It is made up of over 2000 members who include church members, physical health professionals,
bereavement counselor, funeral directors and much more. This page provide education and
appropriate counselling. The disadvantage of this site is pain in online abandonment. Sharing
emotions online may help subside the grief and initiate healing thus helping the mourning
process and bringing about peace (Lundorff, Holmgren, Zachariae, Farver-Vestergaard &
O’Connor, 2017).
It is necessary to identify the factors linked with prolonged grief to identify the people at
risk of developing persistent grief disorder in need of support and sufficient treatment
(Miklowitz, 2017). The internet cannot provide a suitable therapy for those who may benefit
from the treatment, guidance, and care of a doctor, psychiatrist, or therapist.

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References
Bassett, D. (2015). Who wants to live forever? Living, dying and grieving in our digital
society. Social Sciences, 4(4), 1127-1139.
Lundorff, M., Holmgren, H., Zachariae, R., Farver-Vestergaard, I., & O’Connor, M. (2017).
Prevalence of prolonged grief disorder in adult bereavement: A systematic review and
meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 212, 138-149.
Miklowitz, D. J. (2017). 16.1 Family-Focused Therapy. Journal of the American Academy of
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 56(10), S23-S24.
Newsom, C., Schut, H., Stroebe, M. S., Wilson, S., & Birrell, J. (2016). Initial validation of a
comprehensive assessment instrument for bereavement-related grief symptoms and risk
of complications: The Indicator of Bereavement Adaptation—Cruse Scotland
(IBACS). PloS one, 11(10), e0164005.