Grief Recognition Within Dementia Health: A Global Perspective

With respect to grief therapies, much works need to be done on culturally appropriate therapies – pure linguistic translation of grief questionnaires and dementia screening is not sufficient for adequately meeting the needs of people in countries outside of the United States. In this chapter we will begin with a historical perspective of grief. We will also respectfully consider a cross-cultural perspective on grief as well as dementia grief. We will cover many components of the grief process, including using a systems approach to understand grief. I will tease out the finer parts of a repression of anger, how this might block the flow of grief and how this may in turn present as BPSD. We will turn toward the possible links between complicated grief and dementia, by utilizing Worden’s paradigm of complicated mourning reactions. I will offer a proposed theoretical model of dementia mourning. We will then engage in a brief cross-cultural exploration of grief expressed in Japan, India, and the United States. This will provide some context for understanding five existing theoretical models of dementia grief, by exploring background, structure, and application. We will conclude by considering BPSD from a grief perspective.