Welcome to the hundred-and-fifty-second edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #152, where we’ll serve up bite-sized, easily-digestible nuggets of the deathcare news you need to crush conversations in the week ahead. Bon appetit!
Coroner collab
Kudos to Sangamon County, Illinois Coroner Jim Allmon for assisting his state’s senators in composing a newly-passed law that will make “knowingly” providing a family with the wrong cremains a Class 4 felony. The law also created other funeral home regulations, including ID tagging of human remains. Allmon told a local news outlet that although most funeral homes are already doing this, the new law’s regulations will hold everyone in the profession accountable for their actions. The law was drafted after an Illinois funeral home was accused of providing the wrong remains to at least 80 families. Although the law’s criminal consequences won’t apply to the owner who committed these alleged charges, he is being sued in civil court by dozens of families.
Lowcountry woes
The Hurricane Debby floodwaters that inundated portions of South Carolina are unearthing caskets at several cemeteries. Local health departments have received requests to open investigations into possible health risks, and in the meantime, news outlets are warning people not to touch disinterred human remains, but to call the coroner instead. When waters recede, cemetery owners will be tasked with reinterments.
In denial?
Two Australian psychologists are calling for the debunking of the famous “five stages of grief” model created by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in the 1960s. Although recognizing Kubler-Ross’s work as important, Dr. Lisa Burke believes that people wrongly “interpret the stages of grief as a road map,” even though the grief experience is often “complex and messy.” She also takes issue with the fifth stage, acceptance, as many people seek this stage as a desirable destination where their grief will cease, which is sometimes unrealistic. Burke and another psychologist, Dr. Chris Hall, suggest a “continuing bonds” model of grief as a healthier way to embrace loss. This concept advocates the relationship with the deceased as moving from a physical presence to a memory, rather than one that simply “cuts ties” with the deceased in an effort to forget them.
China corruption
Last week we shared an update on two deathcare scandals that are rocking the UK; perhaps lucky for them, this week the scandal spotlight has shifted to China, where a large-scale, multi-province investigation into misconduct and corruption is grabbing headlines. At least 89 deathcare professionals, most with more than 30 years in the industry, are under investigation, and six have been “placed under detention.” Allegations range from charging illegal fees to the “theft and resale of thousands of corpses, some from funeral homes.”
You’re ALL superheroes!
Nine UK deathcare professionals from five Brighton-area funeral homes walked five miles across town dressed up as superheroes to raise money for charity. The money they raised — about $517 USD — will be used to help children and families access food, mental wellbeing support and other vital services.
