Welcome
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Mar Uachtarán na hÉireann, may I extend my warmest regards to all those attending the second European Grief Conference. Cuirim fáilte romhaibh ar fad. This Conference is an important one, a gathering of such depth and breadth, one that is testament to the power of coming together to bring science, practice, policy, education and the arts into a single space, in solidarity, to share and to learn about a topic which speaks to the very essence of our shared humanity - grief, in all its complexity, in all its universality. I have no doubt that this Conference will not only inspire, but will lead to real and meaningful change – change that reflects the diversity and depth of human experience, in ensuring that no one, regardless of their background or circumstances, must navigate the difficult terrain of grief alone. May I wish you all a most productive and enriching Conference Michael D. Higgins Uachtarán na hÉireann President of Ireland |
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We are pleased to invite you to the second European Grief Conference (EGC), taking place in Dublin, Ireland, November 11th to 13th, 2024. The conference is hosted by Irish Hospice Foundation, in partnership with the Bereavement Network Europe (BNE), RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Danish National Center for Grief.
The conference will be held at the historical and cultural sporting centre Croke Park in Dublin.
The vision of EGC is to bring together researchers, practitioners, and educators to learn, share and feel inspired to collaborate around the development and implementation of effective and culturally sensitive bereavement care responses across Europe. The conference will be structured around a four-tiered needs-based bereavement care model (see below), inspired by the evidence-based public health model as advanced by NICE (UK), Samar M Aoun, and others.
The EGC partners credit the Irish Hospice Foundation for the design of the tiered pyramid model of types of bereavement care, on which EGC has expanded.
Consequently, we hope to appeal to a broad audience, consisting of researchers, practitioners, and educators from various disciplines and practice sectors.
The conference will have four overarching themes:
Level 0: Society: Grief Literacy, Advocacy & Community (societal grief literacy & awareness). Here public education about grief empowers individuals, communities, and decision-makers to increase the public’s understanding of bereavement and support needs of bereaved persons.
Level 1: Normal Grief: General Awareness & Support (general support & Information) Here the focus is on having access to information and adequate support, for example, available from family, social, and care networks.
Level 2: Bereavement Support: Prevention & Risk Factors (extra support) A range of identifiable risk factors contribute to the fact that some bereaved people need additional organized support, for example in the form of peer-led groups, psycho-education in community settings.
Level 3: Complicated grief reactions: Diagnosis & Treatment (therapy support). Smaller proportions of bereaved people with additional stressors and disruptions to their grief will require specialist therapeutic responses.
EGC welcomes a broad range of abstracts on bereavement and grief-related topics with a focus on research, education/policy or practice. For the 2024 conference we especially welcome abstracts on suicide bereavement which will be curated into dedicated parallel sessions.