Grief Impairment Scale: Research and Clinical Implications (Self-Study)

Course overview

Although most mourners are resilient, a significant minority experience a profoundly disruptive course of bereavement that substantially impairs their ability to function in crucial life contexts. This presentation reports the development of a brief and efficient 5-item screening instrument, the Grief Impairment Scale or GIS, which assesses the impact of loss on cognitive, behavioral, health, social role and interpersonal domains. Results document the coherent factor structure, internal reliability, construct and discriminant validity, sensitivity and specificity of the GIS in evaluating clinically significant functional impairment associated with grief and support its use in health and mental health settings for both epidemiological research and treatment planning.