Grief and AIDS: Surviving Catastrophic Multiple Loss

SUMMARY

This article explores the issues of grief brought about by the AIDS epidemic. As people affected by the epidemic experience multiple deaths in both their personal and professional lives, the parallel epidemic of grief is reaching crisis proportions. Traditional grief responses are compared with multiple loss grief and appropriate clinical interventions are explored. The phenomena of trauma, survivor guilt, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other historic examples of multiple loss (holocausts) are examined. The existential questions of how to hold hope as we live in an “abyss of trauma, death and grief” concludes this article. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: [email protected]]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gail Bigelow

Gail Bigelow, LCSW, holds a Master of Social Welfare and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She is currently the Bereavement Coordinator, Visiting Nurses and Hospice of San Francisco.

Jeremy Hollinger

Jeremy Hollinger, MFCC, holds a Master of Counseling Psychology and is currently a Licensed Marriage, Family and Child Counselor and Assistant Bereavement Coordinator, Visiting Nurses and Hospice of San Francisco.