UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

FACULTY OF SOCIAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK

NAMES: ALBERT MASHAMBANHAKA

PRINCE RUKONO

VIOLET

TATENDA MHUNGA R174462E

COURSE NAME: COUNSELLING 2

COURSE CODE: HSW480

LECTURER: SR TAKAZA

DUE DATE: 26 OCTOBER 2020

QUESTION: Discuss the application of bereavement counselling

to the Charimupoto family after the death of a relative due to the COVID-19 in
Zimbabwe.
COVID-19 has proved to be a game changer in all societal spheres and confounding as a
pandemic. The health delivery system of Zimbabwe since the onset of the pandemic has been
fragile to respond to the demands of the pandemic. Social work is a profession which is always
changing and adapting to meet the needs of clients in a way of helping people to help
themselves. Bereavement counselling is one of the cornerstones of social welfare to assist people
in a grief state. According to Worden (2009) the overall goal of bereavement counselling is to
help the survivor adapt to the loss of the one and be able to adjust to a new reality without him or
her. The essay will discuss the facets of bereavement counselling essential when giving
counselling to Chirimupoto family after the death of a relative due to COVID-19. Bereavement
counselling include helping the Chirimupoto family to deal with the both emotional and
behavioural pain, helping them to find a way to maintain a bond with the deceased while feeling
comfortable reinvesting in life and also assist the family to overcome various impediments to
readjustment after the loss. However providing effective bereavement counselling to the
Chirimupoto family can be limited due to various reasons. Wilson (2014) posits that early
bereavement counselling can impair the experiencing of emotional pain that is normal and
healthy to the grieving family. This suggests that the grieving family needs time to experience
emotional pain as part of the healing process. Most African cultural values are closed to
professional counselling and they hardly consider the need for bereavement counselling.
Resource constraints impeding social workers to effectively give services to the family and also
lack of resources on the part of the family to access counselling services. This is justifiable if one
considers financial burdens and the negative economic effects experienced by families due to the
COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. The rest of the essay will be discussed below.

Bereavement counselling provides a platform filled with warmth, emphathy and genuiness to
help the bereaved person talk about their loss to kickstart the journey to emotional recovery.
According to Kubler-Ross (1969) this can be encouraged through asking questions about the
death, for example, where it happened, how the family found out about the death; or talking
about the funeral: who was there and what was said about the dead person. The Cruse
Bereavement Care states that within this COVID 19 era, restrictions surrounding funeral rites
may be imposed thus depriving the families of what Rees (2001) calls cultural reinforcers of the
reality of the loss. For instance some members of the Chirimupoto family may have been unable
to attend the funeral due to the restriction on numbers hence talking about those feelings such as
anger, guilt, anxiety, helplessness and loneliness helps the family to deal with the emotions.
Wilson (2014) notes that sometimes a bereaved person will be angry – at the person who died,
with themselves or towards other people, perhaps family members or professionals who cared for
the person who died. Thus letting the family know that these feelings are normal and providing a
safe space for them to ventilate them can be very healing. As the COVID 19 pandemic is fairly
recent, it is surrounded by myths and misconceptions and due to its contagious nature (WHO,
2020), the family may not be able to talk openly with their usual support system such as church
members for fear of stigmatisation hence bereavement counselling would be essential as it
ensures that the family is able to process their loss and work through their pain through openly
talking about it. However one notes that for bereavement counselling to be effective, the
counsellor must be skilled and adequately trained to listen actively and probe sensitively and
according to Chimboza (2012) these are skills which are in critical shortage due to the brain
drain the country has faced.

Bereavement counselling also includes supporting the bereaved person to adapt to a loss by
facilitating their ability to live without the deceased and to make decisions independently.
According to Worden (2009) a bereavement counsellor may use a problem-solving approach that
explores the specific problems the survivor faces, and the means by which they can be resolved.
For instance the person who died may have fulfilled several roles in the life of the bereaved
persons and depending on these roles, the bereaved partner might feel quite lost. In this case the
relative might have been a breadwinner supporting the Chirimupoto family from the Diaspora
hence their death could be posing a financial crisis in the family. Thus Worden (2009) explains
that sometimes help in developing practical, financial or decision-making skills can be valuable.
For instance under normal circumstances, the counsellor would make referrals to grants being
given to families of COVID 19 victims especially if the working member was a frontline worker
(NHS, 2020). However in the Zimbabwean context, the counsellor may fail to help the family
solve their financial problems due to the economic meltdown and resultant resource constraints,
thus bereavement counselling using the problem solving approach may be hindered as a result.
Bereavement is a very essential intervention method to address one of the stages of copying with
death and dying thus the depression stage through psycho-social support.After the death of their
loved one the Charimupoto family is left with memories and responsibilities after the loss of
their loved one.This usually comes to play after accepting the reality at hand.The bereavement
process will in this case not end the depression but reduce the impact of pain upon the family’s
surroundings.Depression can cause a considerable harm after loss of a loved one which may also
lead to unpredicted loss of life Derrecks (2013) in order to address this,this process of
bereavement is applied to sooth such pain through a group therapy for the family whilst allowing
expressing of emotions and feelings.The social worker applying this model will practise
controlled emotional involvement in providing options for the family as to the activities to keep
them occupied.These activities involve trips for holidays,if the family can not
afford,humanitarian organizations will be consulted for purposes of funding the trips.The family
will also be encouraged to avoid lonely moments as they will likely to expirience
depression.This help the family in reducing the pain and stress related illnesses.It must be noted
with great emphasis that depression required a long term intervention method which will see the
counsellor visiting the Charimupoto family time and again.This is how bereavement can be
applied in the case of the Charimupoto family.

The re organisation period is an essential stage in the application of bereavement of the

Charimutupo family after loosing a loved one.Re organisation in terms of counselling is defined
as period of getting over the initial shock and horror of the situation loss becomes a part of life
Serth (2003). A person will begin to get back into the day-to-day swing of things and soon will
be able to focus on other things in life.The counsellor through bereavement will be able to be
part of the rebuilding process,assisting the family to re shift and co exist with loss.It is a period
of emotional strengthening for the client in order to make them self reliant and self
sufficient.This stage is very important as it will prepare the family to exist individually and
refocus on their day to day activities as well as businesses.There is need to install hope at this
period to allow members to be guarantee of a future .This will assist the family through
discussions on their professions and future prospective.This bereavement stage will cancel the
mentality that “all is vanity” which may be suicidal when depression intervenes.The family will
walk this journey believing that they are not alone.
References

Kübler-Ross, E (1969). On death and dying. London: Routledge

Wilson, J. (2014). Supporting People Through Loss And Grief. London : Jessica Kingsley.

Worden, W. (2009). Grief Counselling and Grief Therapy : A Handbook For The Mental Health
Practitioner. New York : Springer.

Gunzburg J. (1994). ‘What works?’ Therapeutic experience with grieving clients. Journal of

Family Therapy; 16: 159–7

Rees, WD (2001). Death and bereavement: the psychological, religious and cultural interfaces,
2nd edn. London: Whurr.

Derrecks (2013).Death and dying,copying with depression,3rd Edition,London

Serth (2003),Reorganizing after death,A new perspective of death and dying,3rd

Edition.Copenhagem

NHS (2020) https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/coping-with-bereavement/

accessed on 10/10/2020

WHO (2020) https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/question-and-

answers-hub/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses accessed on 10/10/2020

Chimboza, A. (2012) "From Brain Drain to Brain Gain: Addressing Human Capital Needs for
Post Crisis Zimbabwe’s Capacity Building". Master of Philosophy Theses. 11.
http://repository.upenn.edu/od_theses_mp/11