With the desire to promote mental health and enhance emotional well-being of people, the Psychology Area of the Department of Basic Sciences, together with the Salud y Persona Foundation, organised the First Session on Mourning, Emotional Well-being and Mental Health. The session, held at the CaixaForum Macaya in Barcelona, brought together experts from different fields who have stressed the importance of psychologically and emotionally supporting people who have suffered a loss.

Different experts from the funeral sector, psychological care and educational sector specialised in mourning processes participated in the session and shared tools for facing losses in a healthy way with the attendees. Through five sessions and an expert round table discussion, attendees were able to learn about the important role of funeral companies and the different services they offer to family members who have lost a loved one. In this line, Miguel Brotons, corporate director of Purchasing and Quality for Grupo ASV, highlighted how the pandemic drove funeral companies to adapt their care and support services.

On the one hand, Salud y Persona Foundation psychologists Anna Vives Roura and Lola Collado focused their participation on the importance of correctly managing the emotional process that is involved in facing a loss, having a good social network that offers support at the time of the loss, and seeking help from professionals when needed.

On the other hand, the expert round table moderated by Joan Piñol, general manager of the Salud y Persona Foundation, highlighted the role that ceremonies and rituals play in facilitating the grief process and emotional recovery for families.  Josep Ventura, CEO of ALLTIMA Funeral Services; Josep París, development director at Funeral Services of Barcelona, Mémora; Iris Crespo, WeCare Chair researcher and lecturer in Psychology for the University's Department of Basic Sciences; and Javier Savin, director of Psychological Care and Training at the Salud y Persona Foundation, took part in it.

Lastly, Iris Crespo presented the main conclusions obtained from the study carried out in cooperation with the Foundation, in which a follow-up of patients who had experienced the recent loss of a loved one had been carried out. After three sessions of psychotherapy, the researcher stressed that “patients have noticed an improvement in their state of health status and quality of life.” Therefore, “the data analysed indicate that early grief therapy can help promote mental health in a stressful time in life for the patient and may even help reduce the risk of complicated grief or other affective disorders.”