How is grief assessed?

Although practitioners sometimes use paper and pencil tests to determine if a person is suffering from grief, the assessment is usually made by the health-care provider asking questions to assess what symptoms an individual is suffering from, then considering whether he or she is suffering from normal grief, complicated grief, or some other issue. Those questions tend to explore whether there are emotional, physical, and/or social symptoms of grief, and if so, how severe and how long the symptoms have been present. The practitioner may also try to determine what stages of the grief process the person has experienced and what stage currently dominates their feelings at the time of the assessment.