Grief for the death of a pet isn’t trivial — our response to patients shouldn’t be either
Recently, a British study revealed 21% of people believe losing a pet is more distressing than losing a human loved one, prompting calls for pet grief to be seen as a medical diagnosis.
The finding came as no surprise to me.
As a longstanding GP, and like many clinicians, I have seen it all when it comes to grief over pets.
As a general rule, patients come in apologetic but needing a certificate for work or having difficulty sleeping or feeling they need to justify themselves to someone.
