FUNERALS CAN SAVE
MEDICAL COSTS,
COMMUNITY, AND
EVEN MOURNERS’ LIVE
By Carl Becker, PhD., D.Psych. Kyoto University School of Medicine, Japan
he more our society ages, the more
we need emotionally and socially
supportive
funerals!
Satisfying
funeral services not only spare our
government huge medical and social
welfare expenses, but also can reduce
families’ isolation and even mortality.
Satisfying funerals are survivors’ last
best chance to reunite with supportive
family and old friends. Dissatisfying
funerals which fail to reunite family
and friends are highly predictive of
grief complications.
Bereavement costs society
Comans et al (2013) suggests that a typical death
bereaves six family and friends, with a minimum cost
over $14,000 Australian. Fox (2014) and van den Berg
(2016) document huge productivity losses among
the bereaved: functioning dropping to 30% at one
month after bereavement and only reaching 60%
at six months. In 2015, Scotland estimated 55000
spousal deaths alone add a cost of at least 2 million
pounds for additional GP medical consultations and
20 million pounds sterling for additional inpatient
stays due to bereavement (Stephen et al., 2015).
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No. 107 – AUTUMN 2024 | THANOS MAGAZINE
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