[What grief counsellors should know about psychological disorders - Results of a Delphi survey among experts].

Abstract

Background: Stepped-care approaches can improve the support for the bereaved. This requires the selection of interventions according to individual support needs. Grief counsellors are in a position to identify bereaved persons possibly suffering from a psychological disorder and to refer them to psychotherapeutic or medical treatment. However, it remains unclear what knowledge regarding psychological disorders and which skills grief counsellors need for this task.

Method: We conducted an online Delphi consensus study with 17 experts of grief counselling in three consecutive survey rounds. The first round qualitatively identified the required knowledge regarding psychological disorders and the respective skills. In the subsequent rounds, the experts rated the topics concerning their relevance, whether they should be part of a training curriculum and whether they are adequately considered in current curricula. Descriptive analyses were applied. Consensus was reached if at least 50 % of the experts rated a topic as rather relevant, and 80 % endorsed the topic for a training curriculum. Expert comments were used to generate recommendations that were evaluated for consensus.

Results: The qualitative analysis identified 39 topics, and 26 reached a consensus. Of these, six referred to "knowledge about grief", five to "knowledge about psychological disorders", and 15 to professional, interpersonal, and relationship and communication skills. Experts' opinions on whether sufficient consideration is given to these topics in current curricula varied greatly between the topics.

Discussion: The experts reached a consensus regarding the areas of knowledge about psychological disorders and the specific skills to be taught. At the same time, there appears to be a high degree of heterogeneity between the various training and continuing education programmes with regard to imparting knowledge to identify the need for therapeutic support.

Conclusion: The present recommendations can be used to inform and optimise the content of training curricula for grief counsellors with regard to the identification of bereaved persons with increased therapeutic support needs.