Grief doesn’t always wait for death to arrive. It can begin quietly, unfolding in layers as we anticipate loss.
When someone enters palliative care, grief often walks beside them. Sometimes months, even years, before a death, families begin mourning who their loved one used to be, the future they’d planned together, and relationships that start to change shape.
At the recent OPCC conference, Chris Hall AM, CEO of Grief Australia, explored this complex terrain of anticipatory grief. His insights, alongside research presented by Dr Priyanka Vandersman from Flinders University on families in residential aged care, reveal how grief reshapes the entire care journey and why understanding it matters for everyone involved.