Reinventing post-pandemic funeral services
Funding provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) College and Community Innovation program will help identify and evaluate the social and economic consequences of the pandemic on the funeral and cemetery industry’s practices and its professionals.
This 3-year applied research project will foster innovation to adapt funeral rituals to respond to the needs of individuals and families post-pandemic. Environmental scans as well as quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis will provide an overview of the industry’s response to the restrictions and regulations instituted over the past year and will help shape the future of the bereavement sector. This new knowledge will lead to the revision and expansion of an open access and bilingual toolkit with educational and outreach resources to support current and future professionals working in a pandemic impacted environment. It will also help establish new and improved best practices in the field that reflect the needs of workers, of the industry and of families.
This new understanding and expertise will benefit future bereavement professionals, as Collège Boréal’s Funeral Director Program, one of only two such programs in Ontario and the only one offered in the French language, will be adapted to reflect the results of this study.
