Premium
Primary care providers' bereavement care practices: recommendations for research directions
Author(s) -
Ghesquiere Angela R.,
Patel Sapana R.,
Kaplan Daniel B.,
Bruce Martha L.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.4157
Subject(s) - referral , grief , mental health , medline , nursing , primary care , health care , complicated grief , medicine , psychology , family medicine , psychiatry , political science , law , economics , economic growth
Objective Bereaved patients are often seen in primary care settings. Although most do not require formal support, physicians may be called upon to provide support to some bereaved, particularly those with bereavement‐related mental health disorders like complicated grief and bereavement‐related depression. Research evidence on physician bereavement care is scant. We make recommendations for future research in this area. Design Literature review focuses on studies conducted between 1996 and 2013 in the United States. Searches of Medline and PsychInfo, along with hand searches of reference sections, were conducted. Results The limited existing research indicates substantial gaps in the research literature, especially in the areas of primary care physician skill and capacity, patient‐level outcomes, and the quality of research methodology. No US studies have focused specifically on care for bereavement‐related mental health disorders. We provide recommendations about how to improve research about primary care bereavement care. Conclusions The primary care sector offers ample opportunities for research on bereavement care. With greater research efforts, there may be improvements to quality of bereavement care in primary care, in general, and also to the accurate detection and appropriate referral for bereavement‐related mental health conditions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.