Theories and frameworks for disaster grief care: A scoping review

Abstract

Aim: To map theories, frameworks, and models underpinning grief care in disaster settings and to describe how they have been applied.

Methods: We conducted a scoping review using the Arksey and O’Malley framework. PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Ichushi-Web were searched for English- and Japanese-language literature from inception to 24 December 2025. We included original studies, reviews, and commentaries that explicitly described a theory, framework, or model guiding grief care for disaster-affected people. Two reviewers independently screened records and extracted data.

Results: A total of 773 records were identified, and 17 articles were included. Publications increased after major disasters and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Approaches clustered into three groups: (1) theory-informed grief care (the Dual Process Model, Ambiguous Loss Theory, and Tasks of Mourning); (2) community- and public health–oriented frameworks (three-tiered support models and the Compassionate Communities framework); and (3) psychotherapeutic approaches for persistent grief: a cognitive model of prolonged grief disorder, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and integrative approaches. Across groups, these frameworks were used to address disaster-related constraints by organizing stratified care pathways from universal support to specialist treatment, including remote delivery, cultural adaptation, and coordination between professionals and community members.

Conclusions: Disaster grief care draws on multiple theories across individual, family, community, and clinical levels, yet a unifying theory that explicitly incorporates disaster contexts is lacking. Nursing research in this area can help fill this gap, with a key next step being to advance situation-specific theory development of disaster grief care and to evaluate feasibility, implementation, and cultural fit.