“Am I normal? Is this normal?”: Supporting a community approach to grief

The grief literacy movement promotes normalizing and regaining conversations about death, dying and grief within communities and networks. Enhancing grief literacy enables the public to identify grief, seek relevant information and adopt appropriate support. Historically families have been the primary provider of such support, but recently in the Global North these skills and knowledge have been lost. Families and communities need to be supported to regain ownership and relearn these skills. An online resource was developed and evaluated to explore its value in supporting the knowledge, skills and values required to embed grief literacy in family and friends-based networks. This paper presents findings from qualitative interviews (n = 16) and group interviews (n = 7). These rich datasets confirmed the resource to be an effective mechanism by increasing knowledge and skills to enhance grief literacy and supporting collective grief, where loss transcends the individual and becomes a social or cultural experience for the majority who deal with their grief with the support of family and friends rather than bereavement professionals.