Considerations on the Role of Palliative Care in the Mourning Period
Considerations on the Role of Palliative Care in the Mourning Period

Summary/Abstract: Death is a universal and inevitable phenomenon, with strong emotional loading for both the dying and those around them (family members or caregivers, of a medical or psychosocial, spiritual nature). The main response to the passing of someone dear is grief, which is usually reversible; however, in some cases, it may generate important general morbidity and mortality risks. Palliative care represents a complex approach meant to improve the quality of life of terminal patients and of their family members, by preventing and mitigating physical pain, as well as psychosocial and spiritual issues. In this field, responsibility toward the patient extends to his/her family after the patient’s death. In this paper, the authors analyze the sources of mourning labour, as well as the intervention means suitable for the genuine existential crisis entailed by the passing of a loved one. The importance of the theme resides in the fine line between physiological grief and depression (with all the risks it involves) and in the need of identifying ways to familiarize the family with the idea of death, both before the passing of the dying and afterwards (to facilitate the mourning labour of those left behind and to avoid its complications).

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