ABSTRACT
The pain and suffering of grief has been known to human society for a long, long time. Just as it has been suggested that this distress may have evolutionary significance for the human group, it might also be hypothesized that the comfort and consolation human beings offer to each other at such times are powerful reinforcers of the bonds so essential for family and community life. Much of the healing of bereavement takes place in the warmth of family life and friendship. Yet the bereaved also, in their distress, turn to or contact many other people. This chapter attempts to provide a framework from which care may be offered to the bereaved by those who have contact with them in the processes of terminal illness before the death; during the bereavement crisis; or subsequently in the months and years that follow, where bereavement seems still to be the most relevant issue.
