• Amy Waller, Heidi Turon, Elise Mansfield, Katherine Clark, Bree Hobden, and Rob Sanson-Fisher.
• Health Behaviour Research Group, Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, NSW, Australia Amy.waller@newcastle.edu.au.
• Palliat Med. 2016 Feb 1; 30 (2): 132-48.

BackgroundSupporting people after bereavement is a priority area for many health services. Investment in bereavement care must be supported by a rigorous evidence-base.AimTo examine the (1) relative proportion of descriptive, measurement and intervention research in grief counselling and (2) quality and effectiveness of intervention studies.DesignSystematic review of studies published in the area of grief counselling.Data SourcesMEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library and PsycINFO databases were searched for studies published between 2000 and 2013. Eligible papers were categorised into descriptive, measurement, review, commentaries and intervention studies. Intervention studies were assessed against the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care methodological criteria, and papers meeting criteria were assessed for quality. The impact of interventions on grief, psychological morbidity and quality of life was examined.ResultsA total of 126 data-based papers, including 47 descriptive, 3 measurement and 76 grief counselling intervention studies were included. Only 59% (n = 45) of intervention studies met Effective Practice and Organisation of Care design criteria. Overall, study quality was poor, with the majority of interventions showing a risk of bias in several key areas. The three studies that met all criteria showed mixed effectiveness.ConclusionGrief counselling interventions require a strong rationale for design, and a systematic approach to development and evaluation. Descriptive research efforts should inform this process, focusing on homogeneity in sample, identification of risk factors for complicated grief and the impact of extraneous factors on intervention effects. Interventions should include comparisons to usual care, as well as replication to confirm positive findings.© The Author(s) 2015.

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