Development of a Bereavement Group in a Geriatric Mental Health Clinic for Veterans

ABSTRACT

Objectives: This article describes the development and program evaluation of an 8-session outpatient geriatric mental health clinic bereavement group for United States military veterans who experienced the death of a loved one.

Methods: Group materials were developed based on a review of literature, with a focus on the dual process model of coping with bereavement and complicated grief treatment. Data are presented from 19 veterans who attended at least 4 of the 8 sessions across the five offerings of this group between 2013 and 2015.

Results: Self-report measures of complicated grief and depressive symptoms decreased significantly from the first to the final session. Veterans indicated that the group met their treatment goals and that they would recommend it to others. Adaptations made to the group over time based on feedback from members and facilitators are discussed.

Conclusions: Preliminary evidence suggests that the group described in this manuscript is effective for bereaved older, male veterans. Future research would be helpful including larger samples and controlled studies.

Clinical Implications: Most bereaved individuals do not require formal mental health treatment. However, for individuals with distressing symptoms, time-limited group therapy may be an effective treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Bereavement
• complicated grief
• grief
• grief treatment
• veterans

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the veterans who participated in this group and the geropsychology students who co-facilitated the group. The ideas and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone, and endorsement by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or any its affiliates, including VA Boston Healthcare System and San Francisco VA Health Care System, is not intended and should not be inferred.

Disclosure Statement

Each author signed a form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. No authors reported any financial or other conflicts of interest in relation to the work described.

Ethical Principles

The authors affirm having followed professional ethical guidelines in preparing this work. These guidelines include obtaining informed consent from human participants, maintaining ethical treatment and respect for the rights of human or animal participants, and ensuring the privacy of participants and their data, such as ensuring that individual participants cannot be identified in reported results or from publicly available original or archival data.

Additional information

Funding

This work was conducted as part of routine clinical care and was not funded by a grant or other financial support.