Erika Iacona
Biographic Data
| ID | 268949 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Erika Iacona |
| GIVEN NAMES | Erika |
| FAMILY NAME | Iacona |
| SIGNATURE | IACONA E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Padua |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9751-6406 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Perceived non-ordinary end-of-life experiences witnessed and reported by a palliative care team accompanying terminally ill patients in a hospice
Ambiguous presence
Patients in a permanent vegetative state present unique emotional, ethical and relational challenges for those who care for them, whose physical presence yet psychological absence may expose staff to ambiguous loss, vicarious grief and disenfranchized grief. This qualitative study used reflexive thematic analysis to explore the lived experiences of 13 healthcare assistants working in a vegetative-state unit in north-east Italy, drawing on semi-st…
Shared Death Experiences in palliative care among family caregivers of cancer patients
Palliative care can provide a crucial contribution to the spiritual aspect of managing both anticipatory grief and bereavement. Spirituality may imply the possibility of thinking of oneself beyond death, thereby imagining existence after death. Very little research has been conducted on Shared Death Experiences (SDEs) and After Death Communication Experiences (ADCEs) in the palliative care field. The present study investigated these experiences u…
Parents' Experiences and Challenges in Communicating Pet Loss to Their Children
The loss of a companion animal can deeply affect both children and parents, often resulting in a form of grief that is overlooked by society. This research explored parents’ experiences in communicating the loss of a companion animal to their children and in understanding their children’s adaptation to the loss. Using a qualitative methodological framework, the study involved 28 semi-structured interviews with parents. A thematic analysis reveale…
Exploring Emotions Related to the Covid-19 Pandemic through Death Education
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of individuals, families, and children worldwide. In Italy, the implementation of measures such as lockdowns and distance learning in schools affected the mental health of children and families. Methods: This article employs a qualitative method to explore the efficacy of a death education project that aimed to help primary school children process the emotions and losses that they experienc…
Bereavement and Critical Incidents Involving Healthcare Professionals in Italy During Covid-19
This exploratory research investigated the work of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the major critical aspects, including healthcare providers’ needs as well as personal, professional, and social changes brought about by the pandemic upon both living and dying. In general, for many healthcare providers, the changes imposed by COVID-19 together with their inadequate training led to an excessive emotional load tha…
Reconstructing Social Relationships in a Post-Lockdown Suburban Area of Southern Italy Using Pastoral Counselling
The growing interest in spirituality has enabled numerous avenues of pastoral counselling support, which can be a useful resource for improving quality of life in the context of significant social deprivation. The aim of this research was to investigate the role of the spiritual dimension of pastoral support interventions created to help the inhabitants of a strongly deprived territory in Southern Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eight people …
Spiritual Counseling During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy
The COVID-19 pandemic has created profound upheavals in today's society, accompanied by psychological effects. The discomfort experienced during the pandemic accompanied by the increased availability of time has offered many people the chance to reconnect with their spiritual dimension, which is considered a vital resource in managing the stress produced by the perception of risk to their health. This study addresses the motivations that led rese…
The Last Glance
Following a ritual perspective, the paper identifies a new form of ritual concerning the corpse, which could facilitate separation and allow the living to look at the deceased without disgust. In order to explore the effect of thanato-aesthetic interventions, the experience of the last glance of the bereaved at their deceased loved ones was analyzed. Twenty interviews were performed in three morgues, and thematic analysis was utilized. The aim wa…
Psychology Students' Perceptions of Covid-19 in a Death Education Course
The systematic removal of death from social life in the West has exposed people living in areas affected by COVID-19 to the risk of being unable to adequately manage the anxiety caused by mortality salience. Death education is a type of intervention that helps people manage their fear of death by offering them effective strategies to deal with loss and anxiety. To that end, a path of death education has been carried out with University students o…
Mourning and Management of the Covid-19 Health Emergency in the Priestly Community
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing major social changes to which significant psychological effects are linked. During the first phase of the pandemic wave in Italy, whilst there was insufficient information about the phenomenon and the strategies to safeguard the population against it, many categories of people, whose professions required constant contact with the public, were affected by the contagion. Aims: The literature has shown ho…
The Covid-19 Disappeared
In Italy, in the very first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic there was a dramatic rise in mortality. However, families were forbidden because of lockdown regulations to be with their loved ones at their deathbeds or to hold funerals. This qualitative study examined bereavement experiences among family members, how they processed their grief, and how they used social networks in particular by uploading photographs during the working-through of berea…
Mental Health in Prison
(1) Background: The Italian Constitutional Court's decision n. 99/2019 abolished the distinction between physical and psychological health care in the Italian prison system. However, this and other changes to the penitentiary system present challenges to prison staff, which may vary based on their roles and backgrounds; (2) Purpose: To create a process of dialogue and collaboration that include different points of view, needs, and proposals regar…
Death Notification in Italian Critical Care Unites and Emergency Services. A Qualitative Study with Physicians, Nurses and Relatives
This qualitative study was conducted in critical care units and emergency services and was aimed at considering the death notification (DN) phenomenology among physicians (notifiers), patient relatives (receivers) and those who work between them (nurses). Through the qualitative method, a systemic perspective was adopted to recognise three different categories of representation: 23 clinicians, 13 nurses and 11 family members of COVID-19 victims w…
Necronym
This study analyses the emotional experiences of people who bear the necronym of a deceased sibling in order to describe the possible psychological implications of this experience. Using the grounded theory approach in interviews with 22 Italian participants and qualitative analysis of resulting texts, we found that some of the main themes that emerged confirmed the figure of the ‘replacement child’ described by previous literature. The three fun…
The Last Glance
Following a ritual perspective, the paper identifies a new form of ritual concerning the corpse, which could facilitate separation and allow the living to look at the deceased without disgust. In order to explore the effect of thanato-aesthetic interventions, the experience of the last glance of the bereaved at their deceased loved ones was analyzed. Twenty interviews were performed in three morgues, and thematic analysis was utilized. The aim wa…
Psychology Students' Perceptions of Covid-19 in a Death Education Course
The systematic removal of death from social life in the West has exposed people living in areas affected by COVID-19 to the risk of being unable to adequately manage the anxiety caused by mortality salience. Death education is a type of intervention that helps people manage their fear of death by offering them effective strategies to deal with loss and anxiety. To that end, a path of death education has been carried out with University students o…
Mourning and Management of the Covid-19 Health Emergency in the Priestly Community
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing major social changes to which significant psychological effects are linked. During the first phase of the pandemic wave in Italy, whilst there was insufficient information about the phenomenon and the strategies to safeguard the population against it, many categories of people, whose professions required constant contact with the public, were affected by the contagion. Aims: The literature has shown ho…
The Covid-19 Disappeared
In Italy, in the very first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic there was a dramatic rise in mortality. However, families were forbidden because of lockdown regulations to be with their loved ones at their deathbeds or to hold funerals. This qualitative study examined bereavement experiences among family members, how they processed their grief, and how they used social networks in particular by uploading photographs during the working-through of berea…
Mental Health in Prison
(1) Background: The Italian Constitutional Court's decision n. 99/2019 abolished the distinction between physical and psychological health care in the Italian prison system. However, this and other changes to the penitentiary system present challenges to prison staff, which may vary based on their roles and backgrounds; (2) Purpose: To create a process of dialogue and collaboration that include different points of view, needs, and proposals regar…
Death Notification in Italian Critical Care Unites and Emergency Services. A Qualitative Study with Physicians, Nurses and Relatives
This qualitative study was conducted in critical care units and emergency services and was aimed at considering the death notification (DN) phenomenology among physicians (notifiers), patient relatives (receivers) and those who work between them (nurses). Through the qualitative method, a systemic perspective was adopted to recognise three different categories of representation: 23 clinicians, 13 nurses and 11 family members of COVID-19 victims w…
Necronym
This study analyses the emotional experiences of people who bear the necronym of a deceased sibling in order to describe the possible psychological implications of this experience. Using the grounded theory approach in interviews with 22 Italian participants and qualitative analysis of resulting texts, we found that some of the main themes that emerged confirmed the figure of the ‘replacement child’ described by previous literature. The three fun…
Reconstructing Social Relationships in a Post-Lockdown Suburban Area of Southern Italy Using Pastoral Counselling
The growing interest in spirituality has enabled numerous avenues of pastoral counselling support, which can be a useful resource for improving quality of life in the context of significant social deprivation. The aim of this research was to investigate the role of the spiritual dimension of pastoral support interventions created to help the inhabitants of a strongly deprived territory in Southern Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eight people …
Spiritual Counseling During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy
The COVID-19 pandemic has created profound upheavals in today's society, accompanied by psychological effects. The discomfort experienced during the pandemic accompanied by the increased availability of time has offered many people the chance to reconnect with their spiritual dimension, which is considered a vital resource in managing the stress produced by the perception of risk to their health. This study addresses the motivations that led rese…
The Last Glance
Following a ritual perspective, the paper identifies a new form of ritual concerning the corpse, which could facilitate separation and allow the living to look at the deceased without disgust. In order to explore the effect of thanato-aesthetic interventions, the experience of the last glance of the bereaved at their deceased loved ones was analyzed. Twenty interviews were performed in three morgues, and thematic analysis was utilized. The aim wa…
Exploring Emotions Related to the Covid-19 Pandemic through Death Education
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of individuals, families, and children worldwide. In Italy, the implementation of measures such as lockdowns and distance learning in schools affected the mental health of children and families. Methods: This article employs a qualitative method to explore the efficacy of a death education project that aimed to help primary school children process the emotions and losses that they experienc…
Bereavement and Critical Incidents Involving Healthcare Professionals in Italy During Covid-19
This exploratory research investigated the work of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the major critical aspects, including healthcare providers’ needs as well as personal, professional, and social changes brought about by the pandemic upon both living and dying. In general, for many healthcare providers, the changes imposed by COVID-19 together with their inadequate training led to an excessive emotional load tha…
Parents' Experiences and Challenges in Communicating Pet Loss to Their Children
The loss of a companion animal can deeply affect both children and parents, often resulting in a form of grief that is overlooked by society. This research explored parents’ experiences in communicating the loss of a companion animal to their children and in understanding their children’s adaptation to the loss. Using a qualitative methodological framework, the study involved 28 semi-structured interviews with parents. A thematic analysis reveale…
Perceived non-ordinary end-of-life experiences witnessed and reported by a palliative care team accompanying terminally ill patients in a hospice
Ambiguous presence
Patients in a permanent vegetative state present unique emotional, ethical and relational challenges for those who care for them, whose physical presence yet psychological absence may expose staff to ambiguous loss, vicarious grief and disenfranchized grief. This qualitative study used reflexive thematic analysis to explore the lived experiences of 13 healthcare assistants working in a vegetative-state unit in north-east Italy, drawing on semi-st…
Shared Death Experiences in palliative care among family caregivers of cancer patients
Palliative care can provide a crucial contribution to the spiritual aspect of managing both anticipatory grief and bereavement. Spirituality may imply the possibility of thinking of oneself beyond death, thereby imagining existence after death. Very little research has been conducted on Shared Death Experiences (SDEs) and After Death Communication Experiences (ADCEs) in the palliative care field. The present study investigated these experiences u…
Psychology (12 works) · Qualitative research (11 works) · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Medicine (7 works) · Disease (6 works) · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion (5 works) · Nursing (5 works) · Psychotherapist (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works)