Manual for Direct Agents – Articulating a Unified Response to the Covid-19 Outbreak Reconstruction After Loss in Europe

Abstract

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his manual, produced within the AURORA@COVID19-EU project, offers practical guidance for non-mental-health practitioners (“direct agents”) who encounter bereaved people in their professional roles. It presents bereavement as both a personal and a public health issue, particularly in the aftermath of COVID-19, when isolation, disrupted rituals, and traumatic circumstances increased vulnerability to complicated grief. The text combines foundational knowledge and applied guidance on understanding normal and complicated grief, identifying risk and protective factors, communicating news of death sensitively, and providing emotional, informational, and instrumental support. It also highlights culturally and spiritually sensitive practices and addresses key intervention contexts such as healthcare, schools, funeral services, and workplaces. Overall, the manual seeks to strengthen grief literacy, improve compassionate responses, and support the ability of practitioners and communities to accompany bereaved people before loss, immediately after death, and in the months that follow.