Podcast: Grief's Impact on Public Health and Policy With Joyal Mulheron, MSc, and Lauren Rowley, MBA, RN

In this episode of “Psyched Perspectives,” host Frank A. Clark, MD, discusses bereavement with Joyal Mulheron, MSc, and Lauren Rowley, MBA, RN, of Evermore, an organization focused on bereavement policy, research, and support. Mulheron founded Evermore after her daughter's death and years advising policymakers on public health issues; Rowley, a registered nurse, joined Evermore's board after losing her brother Jeffrey to COVID-19 in March 2020.

Both guests describe what draws them to this work: Rowley's personal loss transformed her clinical experience at patients' bedsides into a deeper calling to support the bereaved, while Mulheron recounts how a string of national tragedies (Sandy Hook, the death of Trayvon Martin, and others) convinced her that existing support systems—support groups and hard-to-access therapy—were inadequate, prompting her to leave her job and begin listening to grieving people directly.

The conversation centers heavily on health disparities in bereavement. Mulheron explains that the US does not track bereavement statistics directly, so mortality data serves as a proxy, revealing uneven impacts across populations. She cites the COVID-19 "multiplier effect" (each death directly affecting 8 to 9 people), and notes that bereavement carries serious downstream health consequences beyond sadness—including cardiac events, immune dysfunction, and increased mortality risk, particularly among bereaved children, siblings, parents, and spouses. She highlights that 80% to 90% of incarcerated youth experienced a death event shortly before incarceration, and that over half of American orphans are not receiving Social Security survivor benefits owed to them, disproportionately affecting boys of color. Riley adds that Black siblings face significantly higher likelihood of losing a sibling by age 10 and 60 compared with White siblings.

The guests describe policy wins, including paid bereavement leave for US armed forces members, the Social Security Board's first formal acknowledgment of orphanhood as an issue, and authoring the federal government's first fatality response guide for child deaths. Mulheron notes a review of roughly 14,000 studies on bereavement interventions found only 200 met rigorous evidence standards, underscoring the field's need for better research.

Mulheron also pushes back on "resilience" framing, preferring the concept of "weathering"—how much loss a person can absorb—and emphasizes that grief is not something to "heal" from but something woven into identity. The episode closes with reflections on shared humanity, connection across difference, and a call to check on neighbors, particularly those different from oneself.

Dr Clark is an outpatient psychiatrist at Prisma Health-Upstate and clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Greenville. He served on the American Psychiatric Association’s Task Force to Address Structural Racism Throughout Psychiatry, and he currently serves as the Diversity and Inclusion section editor and advisory board member for Psychiatric Times.

Ms Mulheron is founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization Evermore. She has worked in public policy for over 25 years.

Ms Rowley is a registered nurse and a faculty member at Azusa Pacific University.