Developing practical ethics of care for the dead and bereaved: learning from the ways COVID-19 disrupted and reshaped funeral provision
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Aberdeen
Department Name: Sch of Medicine, Medical Sci & Nutrition
Abstract
Funeral provision in the UK was significantly disrupted when COVID-19 infection control policies constrained how and by whom bodies could be attended to and moved to burial/cremation sites; how funeral directors and celebrants could communicate with bereaved families; and possibilities for gathering for funerals, mourning and memorialising activities. The regulations generated significant distress and perceptions of injustice. They also prompted the development of new funeral practices - inviting important questions about funeral provision.
Our interdisciplinary research starts from a recognition of funeral provision as a form of care (and set of caring practices) oriented towards people who have died and their bereaved family, friends and communities. It addresses neglected ethical aspects of funeral provision, including, in the context of COVID-19, questions of fairness and the moral dimensions of distress evident in family members' and funeral directors' worries about not fulfilling important responsibilities, or doing wrong, to those who have died or been bereaved.
Our ethical analyses will be grounded in an ethnographic examination of changed practices and experiences that includes:
(1) analysis of funeral artefacts, including online films, tribute pages, and written accounts;
(2) interviews with diverse bereaved family members, funeral directors and celebrants.
We will attend carefully to what people consider good and right (or not) and why in different circumstances. We will develop practical ethical analyses of post-death care that address tensions between different purposes of funerals and diverse perspectives on post-death responsibilities. Discussion events with key stakeholders will inform the development of resources for future policy and practice.
Our interdisciplinary research starts from a recognition of funeral provision as a form of care (and set of caring practices) oriented towards people who have died and their bereaved family, friends and communities. It addresses neglected ethical aspects of funeral provision, including, in the context of COVID-19, questions of fairness and the moral dimensions of distress evident in family members' and funeral directors' worries about not fulfilling important responsibilities, or doing wrong, to those who have died or been bereaved.
Our ethical analyses will be grounded in an ethnographic examination of changed practices and experiences that includes:
(1) analysis of funeral artefacts, including online films, tribute pages, and written accounts;
(2) interviews with diverse bereaved family members, funeral directors and celebrants.
We will attend carefully to what people consider good and right (or not) and why in different circumstances. We will develop practical ethical analyses of post-death care that address tensions between different purposes of funerals and diverse perspectives on post-death responsibilities. Discussion events with key stakeholders will inform the development of resources for future policy and practice.
Publications
Entwistle V
(2023)
Care in funerals
in The Journal (ICCM)
Entwistle VA
(2023)
Care in Funerals Casebook
Riley J
(2023)
Revisiting funeral recordings during and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK
in Bereavement
Riley J
(2023)
Hybrid funerals: how online attendance facilitates and impedes participation
in Mortality
| Description | The Care in Funerals project gathered rich examples of disruption to funeral provision during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. It showed how this disruption was experienced and responded to - often as deeply distressing, but also sometimes as a stimulus for creative adaptation and with some affordances - by bereaved people, funeral directors and funeral officiants from diverse religious (including non-religious), cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. The aspects of funeral provision impacted included the preparation and visiting of the bodies of the deceased, and the planning and conduct of burials, cremations, other funerary ceremonies and associated social gatherings. Although the specifics of what was previously 'usual' for people varied, there was much common ground in terms of why constraints on funeral practices were distressing, even when they were accepted as important to prevent more deaths. Our findings highlight that when people cannot ensure or contribute to what they consider a 'good' funeral for someone they care about or take some responsibility for (whether in family, professional or broader community roles), they can feel disappointment and even moral distress that is not fully relieved by knowing circumstances were beyond their control. We examined several aspects of funeral provision in more depth. One analysis focuses on disruption to practices of managing, caring for and being with the bodies of the deceased between death and the time of their burial or cremation. We found that diverse interactions with dead bodies, which often went unremarked and were sometimes largely hidden prior to the pandemic, can be deeply significant not only because they reflect beliefs about what happens after death but also because they are interpreted as enacting (or not) respect for human dignity and care and appreciation for the person who died. They can be importantly expressive of relationships and commitments that the bereaved had and have with the recently deceased. To be unable to wash, dress or visit a dead relative if that was an expected norm could be to miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show care. Another analysis focuses on experiences of online/hybrid funerals. Digital hybridisation positively widened access in pandemic circumstances, but we highlighted how (depending partly on available technologies and how they were used) online attendance at funerals can afford less scope for participation in important aspects of funeral activity and with other mourners. This helps explain why evaluations of hybrid funerals have varied, and what needs attention if hybridisation continues. An important project output is the Care in Funerals Casebook. This online resource includes 12 case stories (fictionalised 'composites' from events and experiences reported in project interviews) that exemplify practical and ethical challenges that can arise in funeral provision. Each case story is accompanied by suggested questions for reflection and discussion and one or more commentaries that provide explanatory background or offer viewpoints to stimulate further consideration of the issues raised. The resource is intended to share and extend the rich understanding the project has yielded of why and how funeral provision can matter to people. |
| Exploitation Route | The project can support valuable recognition among policy leaders involved in death management and emergency planning, and practitioners in various areas of the funeral industry of the significance of a diverse array of funeral traditions for people's individual and more collective wellbeing. The Care in Funerals Casebook can be a valuable resource to support reflection and discussion of the values at play in funeral provision and about what can matter and why for the achievement of 'good' funerals. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Description | We are only just two months out from the official end of our project. Several of our submitted publications are under review, and we have not yet launched or advertised the availability of the Care in Funerals Casebook (although it is now 'online' and open for review). A presentation at the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management learning event generated interest from practitioners, including in the use of case stories to support reflection for professional development purposes. A first publication about revisiting funerals by repeat viewings of recordings generated as a by-product of efforts to livestream funerals to enable more people to attend during lockdowns resulted in an invitation to take part in a radio programme which contributed to public consideration of the changing nature of funeral provision. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Other |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Title | Care in Funerals interviews |
| Description | This dataset contains 63 anonymised transcripts from interviews conducted for the Care in Funerals project with people who had been bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic, funeral directors and funeral officiants. (Four participants from the Care in Funerals did not consent to the sharing of their interview transcripts in a public repository). |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | We are not yet aware of any further uses of this dataset. |
| URL | https://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/856027/ |
| Description | Care in Funerals Casebook |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We have not yet formally launched or publicised the Casebook website yet, as we are inviting comments from relevant professional bodies and awaiting a few additional commentaries before doing so. We anticipate reported higher levels of engagement next year. This engagement activity is also reported as a publication - we were not sure how best to categorise it. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | http://www.abdn.ac.uk/care-in-funerals-casebook |
| Description | Care in Funerals project blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Research team members have shared reflections relating to the project, summaries of analytic themes were are working on and copies of presentations in blog posts of up to 1500 words that are oriented for general audiences. By the official end of the project (5 December 2022), we had posted 19 blogs in total. The blog for 5 December 2022 links to a 3-page summary of project findings. We are aware that the links to some of the blogs, sometimes with appreciative comments, have been shared on Twitter by practitioner and academic (death studies) colleagues. The blog (and broader project website to which it is connected) have led to several contacts from university staff and members of the public writing appreciatively about the rationale behind the project and in a few cases volunteering to participate or offering accounts of their own distressing experiences. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| URL | https://www.abdn.ac.uk/hsru/blog/category/care-in-funerals/ |
| Description | Contribution to Radio Scotland "Sunday morning with..." |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Jennifer Riley was interviewed by the radio host Tony Kearney about the ways in which burials, cremation and funerals are changing. She drew on findings from the project as well as a broader awareness of developments in funeral provision. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001js45 |
| Description | Media engagement at start of project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | We issued a press release when our project website went live. This attracted local media interest and resulted in one newspaper article (Press and Journal) , one radio clip (Northsound) and one tv clip (BBC Alba) featuring the principal investigator basically explaining why we are doing this project. The coverage prompted a number of expressions of interest in participating in the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/education/higher-education/3041971/coronavirus-impact-on-funera... |
| Description | Online events to share and discuss findings with study participants |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | We invited all study participants to either of two online meetings to hear a short presentation of the project findings, one of the case stories from the Care in Funerals Casebook and our plans for further research and development. These meetings (and the email messages containing the invitation and a written summary of project findings) were in large part an opportunity to thank participants for their contributions. The meetings also provided an opportunity for participants to ask questions. 13 study participants attended and several others requested a recording of the presentations. Feedback was generally very appreciative of the work. One participant constructively challenged us to say more about the experiences of people in minority religious groups (and one in particular) and another highlighted the need for future work specifically with people with learning disability. Five of the participants who attended suggested organisations that might be interested in using the Care in Funerals casebook. We were subsequently, with the help of the person who made the challenge, able to add a commentary to the casebook that extended the coverage of experiences of people from different religious groups. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Panel presentation at Centre for Death and Society Conference 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Several members of the research team presented a selection of findings from the project in four presentations oriented to the conference theme 'Death and Institutions'. The online audience (practitioners, academics and postgraduate students) engaged in brief discussion afterwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at Death Dying and Disposal meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Five members of the team gave a series of short presentations about the project, including introducing some early findings and outlining plans for the ethics case book. The discussion indicated resonance of ideas for practitioners and support for the direction of travel of the ethics case book. Two funeral celebrants whom we 'e-met' at this meeting, and who have experience as members of minoritized groups, are now working with us as contributors/advisors to the ethics case book. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.abdn.ac.uk/hsru/blog/presenting-our-work-in-progress-at-ddd15/ |
| Description | Presentation at Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management Learning Event and Exhibition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Vikki Entwistle gave a plenary presentation, summarising the main findings of the Care in Funerals project and introducing the Care in Funerals Casebook resource as under development. She read one of the cases and shared the suggested questions for reflection and discussion which conference delegates discussed in small groups. The group discussions were lively, and comments fed back were very positive about the 'resonance' of the project findings and case story, and about the anticipated value of the casebook resource for professional development. Several participants also volunteered to peer review draft cases. The event organisers invited a contribution to The Journal of the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (see publications). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at School - Grave goods and good graves |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Dr Jennifer Riley gave a secondary school's Philosophy and Theology Department Annual Lecture - drawing on findings from this project and introducing a research idea that we developed during the project and will shortly submit as a next research grant application. The talk generated a lively discussion among the pupils. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Workshop on the care in funerals casebook at CDAS conference 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Members of the research team introduced the purpose and design of the casebook, read one of the case stories and associated suggested questions for reflection and discussion, opened up discussion about those, and invited feedback about the case and casebook idea. The activity demonstrated that the case story and questions were 'resonant' and could prompt both deep reflection and wide-ranging discussion. One of the postgraduate participants subsequently contributed a commentary to the casebook. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |