Clinical Research Directory

Evaluation of Grief Therapy Approaches for Bereaved Parents

The purpose of this study is to compare three types of support programs for parents who have lost a child. The study will see how these support programs affect participants' grief and depression symptoms. The three support programs are called Meaning-Centered Grief Therapy, Supportive Counseling, and Enhanced Usual Care.

Rise & Renew: Supporting Well-Being in Black Women After the Loss of a Loved One

This study is testing a new grief support program called Rise \& Renew (Remembering, Expressing, Navigating, Embracing, Witnessing) designed for Black women ages 40 and older who have experienced the loss of a close loved one, such as a spouse or significant other, parent, or child (including pregnancies). The program includes a weekend wellness retreat followed by 10 weeks of online group support. Participants will be randomly assigned to start weekly virtual sessions right away or after a 10-week delay. The study will help the investigators learn whether the program is helpful, easy to take part in, and meaningful for those who attend. The investigators believe that a culturally tailored program that focuses on healing, wellness, and community will improve emotional health, spiritual well-being, and resilience during the grief process.

Help Texts Grief Intervention for Bereaved College Students

The proposed study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Help Texts, a weekly text-based program, among bereaved students at UCLA. Specifically, the study will evaluate whether Help Texts reduces grief severity and symptoms of depression, and whether it improves academic functioning (e.g., graduation, grades, student enrollment retention). The investigators hypothesize that bereaved UCLA students who receive a 12-month Help Texts weekly digital text intervention will have reduced grief severity and depressive symptoms and increased academic functioning compared to bereaved UCLA students in a waitlist control condition receiving treatment as usual (i.e., list of resources for grief). Participants will complete surveys at four timepoints: baseline and 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months following enrollment. They will be randomly assigned to either the treatment condition (receive 12-month Help Texts subscription at enrollment) or the waitlist control condition (receive list of resources for grief at enrollment, and receive 12-month Help Texts subscription at 6 months following enrollment). The Help Texts program involves texts offering psychoeducation related to grief and coping strategies, delivered twice weekly.

Risk and Resilience to Suicide Following Late-Life Spousal Bereavement

The purpose of the RISE study is to examine how the 24-hour rhythm of sleep and social activity relate to mood and suicidal ideation among older adults that recently lost a spouse or life partner.

Musical Playlist of the Grief Journey

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the effectiveness of a music-based intervention as a bereavement strategy for individuals who are a part of the Loss of Spouse/Life Partner Grief Support Group at HopeHealth, a healthcare organization in Providence, Rhode Island that specializes in home care, hospice care, palliative care, and grief support. The main question it ams to answer is: * Will the experience of creating a musical playlist help individuals in bereavement process their grief more effectively? Participants will undergo the following main tasks: * A baseline pre-assessment survey that asks about the role of music in the participant's and their partner's life, as well as how music has helped participants with their grief. * A 75-minute Zoom session with the study investigator which includes a conversation about the participant's loved one and grief journey. This Zoom session serves to find themes and emotions in the participant's grief journey which will be as foundations for musical playlists. * Participants will create their own musical playlist based on guidance from the study investigator. * A post-assessment survey that asks participants to reflect on the experience of creating a playlist. This survey also examines if music plays a new role in the participant's life.

Islamically Integrated Chair-Work for Bereaved Muslims

This study aims to develop and to evaluate the efficacy of an Islamically integrated chair-work intervention designed to assist Muslims experiencing prolonged grief in resolving unfinished business tension. Employing a randomized, non-concurrent, multiple baseline design, the study comprises five phases: (1) baseline assessment, (2) empathic attunement, (3) Traditional Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy (TIIP) chair-work intervention, (4) cognitive consolidation \& spiritually behavioral activation, and (5) follow-up. By integrating insights from early Islamic scholars like Al-Kindi, Abu Bekir er-Razi, and Ibn Sina, alongside psychological counseling and cultural elements, this intervention aims to fill a crucial gap in existing literature. Grief, a normal emotional reaction after the loss of a loved one, is typically resolved over time without professional intervention. However, a small yet significant number of individuals experience prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a persistent and impairing form of grief lasting over 6 months. Unfinished business, indicating unresolved relational issues with the deceased, is a key risk factor for severe PGD. Higher levels of unfinished business are associated with increased psychological problems and unhealthy expressions of grief. Within the framework of Traditional Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy (TIIP), unfinished business is viewed as an emotionally charged problem. Processing this emotional burden during TIIP sessions aims to facilitate resolution, replacing maladaptive emotions with adaptive ones, fulfilling emotional needs, and establishing new meanings for unresolved conflicts. Sense-making of one's loss is crucial for a healthier grieving process, making meaning-oriented techniques more effective in grief therapy. Moreover, research indicates that the expression of grief is influenced by spirituality, religious beliefs, and practices. Yet, there is a lack of faith-based intervention programs tailored for grieving Muslims. This study seeks to address this gap by providing closure and therapeutic methods that cater to the nuanced emotional struggles of bereaved Muslims, offering a faith-based approach previously unavailable in the literature.

Support for Bereaved Cancer Caregivers

Friend and family caregivers of recently deceased cancer patients experience acute bereavement following the death. Post death bereavement is an intense period of mourning that includes an unfolding of the grief process and is characterized by strong emotions and demands on cognitive resources to those who have put aside their own needs to support the dying patient with cancer. This research will test the feasibility and acceptability of a nature-based healing meditation (NBHM) intervention to support cancer caregivers' during the bereavement process.

The Grief Navigation Trial: A Comparison of Two Interventions to Support Parents After Their Child's Unexpected or Traumatic Death

Parents of children who die traumatically or unexpectedly from things like suicide or an overdose suffer from mental and physical health problems and can experience massive disruptions in their family life. For about half of these parents, the first, and sometimes only, interactions they have with the healthcare system when their child dies are with a medical examiner or coroner (hereafter 'ME'). But MEs have little to no training in helping grieving families, and there are no standards guiding medical examiners or coroners on how or even if they should help grieving families. This gap leaves parents to find the help they need on their own. This research will test two different strategies for addressing this gap in the healthcare system.

Caregiver Stress and Bereavement

The death of a spouse is considered one of the most stressful and impactful life events and is associated with increased morbidity and premature mortality. Early identification of individuals who are most at risk for poor health outcomes following bereavement is an important aim of precision medicine and disease prevention initiatives. A better understanding of caregiver burden and bereavement-related distress and its implication for health is a clinically-relevant step toward the development of treatments that improve health outcomes in bereaved spouses. This study aims to map profiles of individual differences in short- and long-term adjustment to loss, according to psychological (e.g., depression, stress, grief severity) and biological markers (e.g., inflammation, cortisol) over time.

Perinatal Bereavement Counseling Training for Midwives

Perinatal bereavement is a condition that can lead to serious psychological problems for parents and their families. Bereaved women are at high risk of mental health problems (e.g. anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression). They may also blame themselves and their bodies for the loss and feel inadequate. Inadequate support from their environment in this process may lead them to experience social isolation. Research highlights the impact of caring for bereaved parents on health professionals, and that inadequate training can have a negative impact. In this context, there is a need for well-structured and tailored training programmes that focus on the specific needs and skills required to provide appropriate bereavement care to parents experiencing pregnancy loss and perinatal death. In this context, this study was planned both to prepare a training programme with evidence of effectiveness and to investigate the effectiveness of perinatal bereavement counselling training for midwives.