• New state government rules to slow the spread of the coronavirus mean funerals in New South Wales will be restricted to 10 attendees or fewer from Sunday.
• “I apologise in advance to all those families going through such a difficult time but, unfortunately, we have no option,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said, announcing the new rules on Friday.
• Psychologist April Ash of The Indigo Project explained to Business Insider Australia how the restrictions could affect the grieving process.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Funerals in New South Wales will be restricted to just 10 attendees from Sunday, down from 100 previously, as part of the state government’s latest measures to contain Sydney’s latest outbreak.

The upgraded restrictions, announced on Friday, represent a repeat of tough measures implemented last year in various parts of the country.

Psychologist April Ash of The Indigo Project told Business Insider Australia that social distancing during incredibly difficult life moments can make an already isolating experience feel even more so.

“They may feel more alone during this period of physical distancing,” Ash explains of a grieving person’s emotions.

The government’s recommendation for Australians to stay at home where possible can add to this.

“It also means that distraction is perhaps more difficult, meaning that they feel as though they cannot escape their grief, particularly if they are surrounded by reminders in their home/space,” Ash said.

With the funeral attendee limit now reduced to ten, it could lead to the cancellation and consequently unforeseeable delay of a deceased person’s memorial service.

Pushing back a funeral can in turn put a hold on the grieving process, Ash said.

“Many people often do not start properly processing their grief until a service or marker of the end of the loved one’s life has been completed,” she explains.

“It is often not until after a service that an individual will allow themselves or let go enough to sit with this more intuitive way of grieving where we sit and feel the pain of our grief, which is incredibly important for one’s grieving process.”

Not attending a funeral can also complicate the grief process.

“It can affect their ability to feel like they are able to create closure or properly honour or say goodbye to a loved one,” Ash explains. She also said it can increase the likelihood of feelings such as guilt and regret after someone’s passed.

Funerals are also an opportunity to feel less alone in your emotional processing. “To bear witness to others grief and having your own grief acknowledged and witnessed is important for healing and can help give individuals permission to grieve,” Ash said.

While funeral restrictions as a result of COVID-19, whether it was this week’s 100-person rule to next week’s 10-person rule, place added stress on an already impossible situation, Ash says that the world we’re currently living in could foster a larger support network during grief.

“This current climate may give people more of a reason, time or space to connect with and support each other through their grief. We are in very strange times, where many people are grieving for different reasons – depending on how a person places their grief and makes sense of this in the current climate, this may actually help them feel less alone,” Ash said.

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