Luto e pandemia: implicações para a saúde mental e as contribuições da atenção primária à saúde

Abstract

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic situation due to the new coronavirus, the causative agent of the disease COVID-19 related to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-COV-2). One of the consequences of the pandemic is the result of a large number of deaths that causes an expressive number of people in mourning, in addition to the pain of individuals mourning the loss of their loved one, the pandemic brings additional stressors to the mourning process, through the restrictions on funeral rituals imposed to try to contain the transmission of the new coronavirus, reducing the time and number of participants at the funeral, preventing the approach and visualization of the loved one, which are important actions for farewell; the social and affective networks that are formed mainly after the funeral ceremony and that help and support the mourner to go through this painful moment, are compromised by social distance, and may bring a feeling of loneliness and abandonment to the mourner. Through a qualitative study of a descriptive and exploratory character carried out from a virtual form aimed at bereaved people who lost a loved one by COVID-19, it was sought through the experience of the bereaved to categorize the mourning process mediators involved by the situation of pandemic in the country to understand mourning in the context of the pandemic and its implications for mental health and discussing contributions of primary health care in welcoming and supporting individuals bereaved by COVID-19 to direct bereaved users to the tasks of mourning. The crossings caused by the pandemic directly affect the mourning mediators and can negatively interfere in the mourning tasks, thus bringing implications for the mental health of bereaved individuals and primary health care, due to their territorial performance, as well as their essential characteristics of open access and longitudinality care presents itself as a potential clear to deal with the consequences of the pandemic, including the mourning experienced by those who lost their loved ones due to COVID-19, receive and supporting bereaved individuals, preventing complications grief and pathologization of mourning.