The COVID-19 pandemic has killed millions across the world in only two years. Government health restrictions aimed at preventing transmission have impacted typical mourning practices such as funeral gatherings and in-person grief support services. This research examines the potential impacts that the pandemic may have had on people's ability to grieve. We employed a mixed methods study design to ask those who have lost a loved one during this time to reflect on their mourning practices with an anonymous survey. Our results present themes of complicated grief, the uncertainty of who to blame for frustrations, and common needs requested by the bereaved to help them mourn during these unprecedented times. These findings may help inform grief support and bereavement services during current and future mass death and pandemic health concerns.
COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on arguably every sector of our criminal justice system. To assess the impact that this global health crisis has had on our medicolegal investigations and administration of justice during the early stages of the pandemic, this research aims to give voice to the lived experiences of medicolegal death investigators (coroners, medical examiners and pathologists). This research involved in-depth interviews and follow-ups with experienced personnel from Canada (3), Italy (1), the United Kingdom (1) and the United States (4). Results suggest that despite facing similar challenges, each individual office has had to develop their own strategies to overcome obstacles during the early stages of the pandemic. These results help identify overlapping areas for constructive policy and procedural changes, including recommendations for workflow adaptations, strategic partnerships and other approaches to best prepare for subsequent health crises.
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