Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore alternative death care practitioners’ perspectives on grief and bereavement and the influence of their work on the bereaved. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze responses from 10 interviews. Participants were selected using a snowball sampling method. Three themes emerged from the findings: Embodied Participation, Community and Access, and Death as Natural. One major finding was that cultural attitudes toward death and a lack of death literacy function as both individual and systemic barriers to accessing alternative death care options. The implications for social work policy and practice are discussed.