I support COVID-19: a participatory action research project testing an innovative virtual support modality developed according to the model of compassionate communities in order to understand and prevent complicated mourning in the context of a pandemic

Google translate: Public health measures to stem the spread of COVID-19 have tragically disrupted support for people at the end of life as well as the mourning process for their loved ones. To date, the particularities of mourning in the context of a pandemic have not been documented by any study. However, several writings lead to the conclusion that this context involves many factors likely to generate an increase in complicated bereavements. At the same time, the measures of confinement and physical distancing are disrupting the methods of psychological support intended for the bereaved. The main community organizations offering group support have had to suspend their activities. Professional individual psychotherapy services can be offered virtually, but pose a certain challenge in terms of accessibility and equity given the costs they generate for bereaved individuals whose job security is often affected. In April 2020, our team benefited from a start-up grant to set up the "I accompany" project; a participatory action research project developed using the compassionate communities approach. These funds allowed us to gather empirical data through in-depth qualitative interviews with 13 participants bereaved by the consequences of COVID-19 and thus better understand their support needs. As part of this request, we wish to: continue and deepen our understanding of grief in the context of a pandemic by increasing the size of our sample, add a longitudinal component by documenting the evolution of the grieving process of these participants in order to identify the factors that may contribute to possible complications of bereavement and document the effectiveness of an alternative and accessible virtual support modality for bereaved people in the context of the pandemic.]