Ms. Jan Tully
Loss and grief is a universal human experience and is a part of life. Loss and grief impacts on all health issues across the community. An understanding of the theoretical frameworks and perspectives of loss and grief is essential to the practices of all health practitioners. The twenty-five years of experience of this Association in working with urban and rural communities has identified many similar, yet specific, service solutions. A research project undertaken in rural Victoria in 2000 demonstrated the breadth of loss and grief issues affecting that community the range of services required to respond to the need and the expectations and limitations of practitioners to accommodate the support and resource needs. The results of this study can be extrapolated across rural regions and provide informed comment. For example: raising public awareness of loss and grief issues including economic, social and environmental aspects; training and provision of appropriate resources for professionals in health, welfare and community services; the extent and need for support services. Whilst in the main rural needs are not dissimilar to urban issues, the provision of loss and grief supports in a rural environment carries with it a requirement to consider and give attention to specific and environmental factors. In particular, accumulated economic, social, infrastructure and physical losses consistently experienced over time have led to the emergence of complicated grief scenarios and the need for a comprehensive integrated service response. Given Australia's multicultural familial and political links to a diverse range of overseas countries, the Australian developmental model and approach to addressing loss and grief needs of diverse individuals, families, communities is of relevance to an international audience.