Why aren’t rural family caregivers receiving appropriate bereavement support in Australia? Practical considerations for palliative care settings

Abstract

Bereavement support for families and carers in rural Australian settings often fails to meet well-established and longstanding guidelines in key areas, subsequently causing undue mental distress for many individuals and potentially leading to the development of prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a debilitating psychiatric disorder of intensified grief and additional physical health detriments. In this paper, we consider the literature surrounding rural bereavement care in Australia and identify factors that contribute to poorer bereavement care in these locations, including issues of lacking policy elements to guide bereavement support and deficiencies in training and staffing which create difficulties between competing healthcare priorities. We synthesise recommendations of several guidelines to propose an individualised, multi-disciplinary, and pathway-based approach to rural bereavement care, and finally suggest several key areas that can be targeted and improved to help improve rural bereavement care in Australia without creating significant strain on the already thin resources of rural healthcare settings.