A grief diagnostic instrument for general practice

Abstract

Assisting patients to deal with loss is a major, yet unrecognized, role of general practitioners. Although instruments exist for measuring grief resulting from a given loss, such as bereavement, none exists that detects and measures grief from any loss. This study describes the development of the Grief Diagnostic Instrument for this purpose in general practice patients. Evaluation showed it to be a concise, valid, reliable and sensitive measure, and acceptable to general practice patients. The instrument investigates and measures grief from multiple losses rather than a single loss compared to other grief scales. Suggestions have been made for further validation studies. Its use in future grief research and clinical practice are described.