Death Cafés:Where Communities Affirm Grief

As the United States surpasses 550 000 excess deaths from COVID-19, the impact of these fatalities is especially salient. COVID-related deaths will likely accelerate a years-long trend in declining “working age” life expectancy.

Individuals who are left, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, are shouldering the burden of losing their elders and cultural knowledge bearers, multiple family members, and others suddenly and without closure. Critically, these same communities must grieve during the pandemic, which has cumulatively stripped them of economic sustenance as well as their traditional mourning and burial practices.

The article is published in full in American Journal of Public Health (AJPH).