About

Grief literacy needed a dynamic literature review. At least that’s what I thought. So, I bought this domain in November, 2024 and started gathering references.

I’m using it to build bibliography for my own work, and maybe to help others.

Here’s an overview of my thinking:

Humans struggle in the aftermath of death. Bereavement researchers are concerned about the public health cost of grieving. Friends want to know what to say when their buddy’s child dies. Researchers have identified what supportive communities would look like. And have identified broadly who needs what kind of support. And have recommended improving grief literacy.

Here are the studies I’d love to do.

a community-level bereavement capacity study.
a study of organizational bereavement cultures,
a “what might your friend need from you” study.
a study of clergy and congregational understanding of bereavement

This site is curated by Jon Swanson, PhD. I’m a hospital chaplain, a writer, an adjunct professor, a researcher.

I write weekly on being helpful in loss at thisishard.substack.com.

You can contact me at jon.swanson@socialmediachaplain.com