Often the terms grief and bereavement are used interchangeably. However, there is a difference. Bereavement refers to the state of loss. Bereavement is a process that includes the emotional reaction to the death (grief), learning how to cope with the loss and then learning how to live with the loss.

Health care teams can also facilitate some of the following strategies to assist the person who is dying and their family.

• Art therapy and music therapy can support patients and their relatives. This is available through most community and inpatient palliative care services within Australia
• Family meetings facilitated by the health care team can assist to provide psycho-social support and ensure everyone has the opportunity to hear the same information at the same time. This can be particularly helpful if there is discord within the family
• The family GP can also arrange for one-to-one counselling for family members if this is needed.

Many hospitals, community services and aged care facilities also provide additional bereavement support the family can access after the person has died. Some examples of these include:

• memorial services
• memorial gardens and walls
• access to chapels on anniversaries to enable relatives to spend time in the facility, light a candle, etc.
• staff sending cards or attending the funeral of the client to show support to the family
• funeral directors providing additional support to the family. This varies depending on the service.

Resilience

Resilience is a term that is used to describe factors and mechanisms that impact on a person's level of protection against adversities and includes personal attributes as well as community and cultural factors.

Considering the definition above, when someone is faced with the death of a loved one their level of resilience can really impact on their grief and bereavement experience.

Resilient individuals tend to do the following.

• Draw on past experiences of loss
• Connect with their family and community
• Draw on religious and spiritual strengths and resources
• Identify internal and external strengths and resources
• Reconstruct a world of meaning and personal identity following the death