Anticipatory Grief

Families facing the end-of-life of a loved one may experience various degree of anticipatory grief as an emotional response to the awareness of the impending loss. Anticipatory grief can be evoked as soon as family members learned about the end-stage diagnosis of their loved one, and these responses could be affective, cognitive, physical and spiritual. Intense anticipatory grief may adversely affect the well-being of family members, and may subsequently affect their bereavement experience. This series of training will introduce the basic theories and intervention strategies on anticipatory grief in adults and children, which aims to enable end-of-life care workers to understand the experience of families in facing terminal illnesses and support them proactively in this critical period.