4.7 Overall evaluations of the service

Table 14 presents the overall means and standard deviations of outcome variables of post-death/ funeral information accessibility. Significant differences were observed between the two groups. First, non-service recipients from the comparison group had a lower score on knowledge regarding the procedure for post-death matters (intervention group: 4.53; comparison group: 3.52), knowledge regarding the procedure for funeral arrangements (intervention group: 4.53; comparison group: 3.58), and information access (intervention group: 4.70; comparison group: 4.03), compared with service recipients from the intervention group. The result of the ANCOVA test further confirmed the above findings, indicating that after controlling for the significant different sample characteristics between the two groups, there were statistically significant differences between intervention and comparison groups in the score of knowledge regarding the procedure for post-death matters, knowledge regarding the procedure for funeral arrangements, and information access following the Be-with service (p < 0.001).

Table 14. Comparison of post-death/funeral information accessibility between intervention and comparison groups after the funeral

Outcomes Items measured

Post-death/funeral information accessibility Knew the procedure for post-death matters M (SD) Intervention group (F1) Comparison group (F1) F ratio p partial η2

4.53 (0.64) 3.52 (1.19) 60.567 0.000*** 0.349

Knew the procedure for funeral arrangements Could access the needed information 4.53 (0.67) 3.58 (1.19) 57.713 0.000*** 0.338

4.70 (0.58) 4.03 (1.02) 38.169 0.000*** 0.252

Note. Range = 1–5, 1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree; F1 = Funeral, * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. ANCOVA was employed in each item, adjusted with significant different sample characteristics between the two groups (age, place of birth, employment status, family income, living status, time since death). Partial eta-squared (η2) reflects the portion of variance explained by the service after controlling for sample characteristics. For η2, results larger than 0.14 are considered large effects.

4.7 Overall evaluations of the service

As part of the service evaluation, the service recipients were asked about the overall evaluation of the Be-with service as well as their perception of the workers’ professional qualities while helping them handle funeral/post-death affairs. Impressively, the results showed that the mean score of the overall evaluation of the service (In general, I felt satisfied with the Be-with service) was 4.86 (SD = 0.43), which was very close to the maximum score of 5.0. And 96.9% of service recipients agreed or strongly agreed with that evaluating statement. Furthermore, of 66 service recipients, there was a

very positive perception of the workers’ professional characteristics, as shown in Figure 27. As the two highest-rated items demonstrated, the workers of the Be-with service were perceived as “eager to help” (M = 4.82, SD = 0.37) and “knowledgeable about post-death matters/procedures” (M = 4.82, SD = 0.48). In general, the majority of service recipients perceived the workers as very supportive and professional during the process of dealing with funeral/post-death affairs.

To what extent do you agree with the following statements? The worker from the Be-with service was...

4.84 4.84 4.83 4.83 4.81 4.81 4.77 4.73 4.72 4.7 4.66 4.66 4.61 4.58

4.48 4.47 4.5

4

3.5

Eager to help me ( 樂意幫助我 ) ) Knowledgeable about post-death matters/procedures ( 熟悉殯儀喪禮的流程 Responsible ( 責任心 ) ) Able to provide useful information on the post-death matters ( 能提供有用的殯儀喪禮資訊 Patient ( 有耐性 ) ) Trustworthy ( 令我信任 ) Considerate ( 細心 Able to make me feel secure ( 令我感到安心 ) Able to reduce my burden ( 減輕我的操勞 ) ) Able to answer my questions accurately ( 準確回答我的問題 Able to reduce my helplessness and uncertainties ( 減輕我的無助與徬徨 ) ) Empathetic, e.g., understand my feelings ( 有同理心，例如了解我的感受 Able to accompany me through the difficult time ( 陪伴我度過難過的日子 ) Able to listen to my needs ( 聆聽我的需要 ) ) Able to care for/comfort me ( 關心我、安慰我 Able to listen to my feelings ( 聆聽我的感受 ) 3

characteristics professional worker’s the of evaluations recipients’ Service 27. Figure

DISCUSSION & IMPLICATIONS5