The scale of bereavement and loss caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is difficult to comprehend. With death tolls reported extensively in the media, it is easy to lose sight of the people behind the statistics: each death was a person who loved and was loved; each person left behind bereft friends and family.
As of February 2021, W.H.O. figures show that over 2.4 million people have now died from Covid-19 worldwide, with over 111 million people testing positive. In the UK, over a million people have been bereaved by over 122,000 Covid-19 deaths. Research suggest that grief due to a COVID-19 loss is often heightened due to the impact of infection control measures and restrictions on social interactions during this traumatic time.
In this session we welcome David Weaver, President of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, Fatima Khan Shah, who has experienced two bereavements in the last year, and Dr Lucy Selman, whose recent research focuses on bereavement during the pandemic. The session is facilitated by Dr Lucy Pocock, an academic GP at the University of Bristol. The panel will reflect on the lives and experiences behind the numbers and explore ways to make sense of the losses of the past year.
