multiple stressors

such things… By the way, speaking about the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, their bureaucratic procedures could be very complicated. After the cremation, then…, I have to keep the ashes in the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department for one to two weeks. After that…so weird, I have to submit some documents, make a declaration, and fill out a form. And then I have to wait…wait for their permission. However, that department will approve it anyway, right? Then I have to wait for one to two weeks, for a letter sent by that department. And then with this letter, I can go to collect the ashes. How ridiculous! What’s the point of that? (Female, 51–55 years old)

Second, our interviews also revealed that such complicated procedures of post-death matters imply an increased burden to some disadvantaged groups, such as older people and people with disabilities. For example, one of our participants reported that he particularly found it overwhelming when it took lots of physical and mental energy to deal with the procedures of post-death affairs.

Recipient 6: Like me, an older adult, something like walking is not so easy sometimes. I had to walk around and found I was lost and couldn’t find it (note: the building for getting the death certificate). This process, I found it very annoying… Also sometimes I had to fill out some forms. And the worker of the Be-with service is familiar with them; she knows how to fill them out. But if I have to fill them out myself, it is totally different. If she didn’t help me, then I might be filling out the forms in the wrong way and have to do it again. So, does it make me feel annoyed? I might spend three to four hours filling them out… Yes, sometimes, that’s the way. I am not young; I don’t have good energy or a healthy body. The whole procedure requires me to walk around and deal with different kinds of things. Then my body couldn’t support me. It is very likely that I will get sick because of it… Take me as an example, since I myself am not young anymore. (Male, 66–70 years old)

3.2 Total support: How the Be-with service facilitates the bereaved in coping with multiple stressors

In response to multiple stressors, we found, in our interviews that the support from the Be-with service facilitated the bereaved service recipients in coping with such situations, which could be summarized as “Total support”. In what follows, we present four key themes related to how the service supported bereaved persons and indicate that it had a vital role in meeting their unique immediate needs after the death of loved ones: (1) the overall service: companionship from the beginning to the end; (2) informational support: professional guide, like a white cane (盲公竹); (3) emotional support: caring about more than funeral logistics; and (4) instrumental support: serving beyond job responsibilities, as shown in Figure 4.