AlzEd: What is grief, and how does it matter?

Join us on February 24, 2026, for our latest AlzEd session!

In this presentation, we will explore some fundamental elements of grief, with a specific focus on caring for persons with dementia. We will explore answers to the questions: What is grief? What can I grieve? What can we do to make our communities more ‘grief aware’ and ‘grief literate’?

Our Presenter     

Mary Ellen Macdonald (PhD) is an anthropologist and Professor in Palliative Medicine at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She holds the J & W Murphy Foundation Endowed Chair in Palliative Care, with the mandate of contributing to palliative and end-of-life care research and practice across Nova Scotia. She has been researching death, dying, and bereavement for two decades, and is particularly passionate about supporting death and grief literacy across the diverse communities in the province. See her TEDx talk on ‘Grief, memory, and caring for the dead.’ She writes about this work in academic publications and at www.GriefMatters.ca