Assessing grief and bereavement: observations from the field

The purpose of this article is to describe the evaluations involved in the Yale Bereavement Study (YBS), a three-year NIMH and NCI-funded longitudinal study conducted from January 2000 through May 2003. The quantitative and qualitative questions included in the YBS gave the respondents an opportunity to describe their most recent loss, rate and review their past losses, and assess all aspects of their current life situations. In this article, the first author describes, in a qualitative manner, the ways in which this assessment, per se, appeared helpful and not harmful to the respondents. Also, developed here is the implication for potential application of a modified version of the YBS which could be used in both research and clinical practice.