Grief, Loss and Bereavement

Grief is a natural response to loss and something that everyone will go through.

Grief doesn’t only occur when we lose someone we care about, we can grieve a relationship, home, pet, job, or imagined future.

You can also grieve something or someone before the loss has happened.

The bigger the loss the more intense the grief can be. Grieving is not a straight line and there is no set time frame for grieving

There is no right or wrong way to grieve. Everyone grieves differently.

We can grieve a person, but we can also grieve a place, pet, home, or imagined future. We can grieve anything we can lose. Bereavement is the experience of loss and the process of grieving following the death of someone close.

There is no time limit on grief. People can carry their grief with them through the rest of their life. We can adjust to a life without important people, but we don’t forget them or lose our connections to them.

Grief touches all aspects of a person’s life. In the weeks, months, and years following a significant loss, people may experience a wide range of unpredictable reactions and responses.

Helping communities navigate Grief and Loss

Grief, loss and bereavement are a natural part of every well‑lived human life. Yet too often, we don’t talk about them and then when loss touches us, we can feel overwhelmed, unprepared or alone.

Palliative Care Tasmania is working to increase grief, death and dying literacy across the state, offering a range of Tasmanian‑created books, courses and resources that help individuals, families and communities better understand grief and show up with compassion and confidence when it matters most.