Working with Death: Psychosocial Risks and Protective Factors at Work in Funeral and Health Care Professions

Dear Colleagues,

The health care professions and the operators of the funeral industry (including necroscopic, mortuary, funeral, crematoria, and cemetery services) share the same experience of death and the emotions associated with it on a daily basis. These workers are affected by high levels of suffering during the course of their work and often have the task of assisting with the end of life rites that can facilitate the mourning process for the friends and relatives of the deceased. Therefore, they are exposed to a high risk in terms of mental and physical discomfort, with negative consequences for both the quality of their life and the offered service. The main symptoms include physical and psychological problems, dissatisfaction, burnout and secondary traumatic stress, up to the onset of counterproductive behaviors and the development of addictions (with or without the use of substances). These working difficulties are aggravated by the management of the relations with patient’s families or with deceased’s  mourners.

In this Special Issue, we invite authors to contribute with research that examines health care professions and funeral operators’ work conditions, with attention to risk and protective factors of wellbeing and of health at work. Papers investigating the role of compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, compassion satisfaction, exhaustion, coping strategies (e.g., humor), stigma, and emotion management among health care professions and operators of the funeral industry will be especially welcome.

Dr. Lara Colombo
Dr. Margherita Zito
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.