Selman, Lucy E., Chamberlain, Charlotte, Sowden, Ryann, Chao, Davina, Selman, Daniel, Taubert, Mark  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0454-5609 and Braude, Philip
2021.
Sadness, despair and anger when a patient dies alone from COVID-19: A thematic content analysis of Twitter data from bereaved family members and friends.
Palliative Medicine
35
(7)
, pp. 1267-1276.
10.1177/02692163211017026
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Abstract
Background: To inform clinical practice and policy, it is essential to understand the lived experience of health and social care policies, including restricted visitation policies towards the end of life. Aim: To explore the views and experiences of Twitter social media users who reported that a relative, friend or acquaintance died of COVID-19 without a family member/friend present. Design: Qualitative content analysis of English-language tweets. Data sources: Twitter data collected 7–20th April 2020. A bespoke software system harvested selected publicly-available tweets from the Twitter application programming interface. After filtering we hand-screened tweets to include only those referring to a relative, friend or acquaintance who died alone of COVID-19. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Results: 9328 tweets were hand-screened; 196 were included. Twitter users expressed sadness, despair, hopelessness and anger about their experience and loss. Saying goodbye via video-conferencing technology was viewed ambivalently. Clinicians’ presence during a death was little consolation. Anger, frustration and blame were directed at governments’ inaction/policies or the public. The sadness of not being able to say goodbye as wished was compounded by lack of social support and disrupted after-death rituals. Users expressed a sense of political neglect/mistreatment alongside calls for action. They also used the platform to reinforce public health messages, express condolences and pay tribute. Conclusion: Twitter was used for collective mourning and support and to promote public health messaging. End-of-life care providers should facilitate and optimise contact with loved ones, even when strict visitation policies are necessary, and provide proactive bereavement support.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Status: | Published |
| Schools: | Schools > Medicine |
| Additional Information: | This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) |
| Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
| ISSN: | 0269-2163 |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 24 May 2021 |
| Date of Acceptance: | 30 April 2021 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Nov 2023 02:10 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/141538 |
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