Online early supportive psychological intervention for bereaved families during COVID-19: Lessons Learned and Implementation Challenges

As the COVID-19 pandemic has created complex conditions and the horrific loss of numerous lives, grieving the loss of loved ones in close families can be extremely difficult. To reduce the suffering of the loss and prevent the development of complicated grief, it is necessary to provide bereavement care as soon as possible. Therefore, we quickly developed a complete online program that included supportive psychotherapeutic interventions and psychiatric counseling. The structure of all services is the main emphasis of the study, which also emphasizes the quantitative components and the unique characteristics of the interventions. Based on the lesson learned, we discussed the difficulties experienced in putting into practice an internet-based preventive service. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study was funded by a grant from Tehran University of Medical Sciences. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Eethics committee of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences gave ethical approval (IR.TUMS.VCR.REC.1399.256)for this work. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present work are contained in the manuscript.