Design for the unaware concerns

Abstract

Support people, especially support the bereaved people, is a challenging task. People’s attitudes towards death vary because many factors can influence it, such as gender, age, educational background, cultural and religious factors. The personality of the attitudes towards death stops people from supporting the bereaved actively because they are aware that their unprofessional actions may cause secondary injury and offend. Similarly, it makes it difficult for the bereaved to express their needs because of the sensitivity of the death.

In most situations, due to the concerns listed above, supporting the bereaved to cope healthily is considered as a task that should be better conducted by formal support, such as support provided by psychologists and social workers. However, it is proved that informal social support is also necessary for healthy grieving.

This project explores the opportunity of promoting informal social support in the working context. In detail, it focuses on supporting the bereaved to have a healthy grieving by facilitating the support provided by their colleagues. Based on the “Network of care” theory, this project defines all stakeholders in three groups: The bereaved, the colleagues, and the facilitator. This project explores the barriers that stop the colleagues from supporting the bereaved and studies the possibility for the facilitator to facilitate a support strategy. Choosing IDE faculty as the project context, this project ends up with a feasible service supported ritual that can reduce the unaware concerns related to death, raise the awareness of supporting each other, and build the connection between the bereaved and their colleagues, concern-free and caring.