The StoryListening Project: Feasibility and Acceptability of a Remotely Delivered Intervention to Alleviate Grief during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have created heightened challenges to coping with loss and grief for family and friends of deceased individuals, as well as clinicians who experience loss of their patients. There is an urgent need for remotely delivered interventions to support those experiencing grief, particularly due to growing numbers of bereaved individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.Objective: To determine the feasibility and acceptability of the brief, remotely delivered StoryListening storytelling intervention for individuals experiencing grief during the COVID pandemic.Setting/Subjects: A single-arm pilot study was conducted in the United States. Participants included adult English-speaking family members, friends, or clinicians of individuals who died during the COVID-19 pandemic. All participants engaged in a televideo StoryListening session with a trained StoryListening doula.Measurements: Participants completed a brief follow-up telephone interview two weeks after the StoryListening session. We describe enrollment and retention data to assess feasibility and conducted a deductive thematic analysis of the follow-up interview data to assess acceptability.Results: Sixteen clinicians and 48 friends/family members enrolled in the study (n = 64; 75% enrollment), 62 completed a StoryListening session; 60 completed the follow-up interview. Participants reported that the intervention was useful and offered a valuable opportunity to process their grief experience.Conclusions: The StoryListening intervention is feasible and acceptable for friends/family members and clinicians who have experienced grief during COVID. Our intervention may offer an accessible first-line option to address the increasing wave of bereavement-related distress and clinician burnout in the United States.