Thèses sur le sujet « Bereavement Parental grief »

Grief research generally demonstrates that children and teenagers who have lost a parent in suiciderisk developing severe psychological and physical morbidity, as well as social disabilities, in adultlife as a result of traumatic aspects of the death and complicated grief reactions. The youngbereaved also run a highly increased risk of developing suicidal behaviour or to commit suicidethemselves. Despite these alarming reports, the research field is poorly explored and studies thattake an interest in the long-term consequences and the subjective experiences of the bereavedyoungsters are lacking. A qualitative study using narrative methods has been carried out toexamine the experiences of four young women, who during adolescence lost a father in suicide.The study specifically focuses on the grief process, the short- and long-term consequences, and theneed for social support in relation to family, extended network and society. The study reveals thatthe women’s traumatic loss has shattered their basic assumptions about the world as a safe andmeaningful place. A fear of losing another significant person, i.e. the remaining parent, siblings ora life partner is also a common denominator. The women have experienced complicated griefreactions such as guilt, shame, anger, feelings of abandonment and “why-questions” regardingtheir fathers’ suicide motives. They have found it difficult to receive social support due to moralaspects of suicide as a death cause – sometimes even within their own family – and due to a fear ofbeing condemned or regarded abnormal if they told others about their trauma. The time aspect isnot found to have affected the grief process. This process has been facilitated, however, throughsocial support from family, relatives, friends and professionals. Moreover, “sense-making”, or thecapacity to construct an understanding of the loss experience, as well as the active process of“re-membering”, has been found valuable in the grief process as it contributes to the constructionof an inner representation of the father. A continued relationship to the father after his death has inmost cases been regarded as helpful in the grief process. The women describe that the father’ssuicide has affected their self-conception and their life contents. Coping with the loss the womenseem to have developed stronger self-esteem, but at the same time some of them have come toregard themselves as “odd” and more mature in comparison with their peers. All women talk abouttheir fathers’ deaths with high actuality, indicating that the grief is most present. The womendescribe a re-priority of what they find important in life; close relationships are portrayed as moreimportant, as well as being helpful to others.

Att förlora sitt barn är den svåraste förlust en förälder kan uppleva i livet. Sorgen blir påtaglig och livet raseras på ett ögonblick. Syftet med studien var att beskriva föräldrarnas upplevelse under sorgarbetet vid förlusten av ett barn. Metoden som användes var en litteraturstudie med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet sammanställdes utifrån åtta vetenskapliga artiklar som svarade på studiens syfte. I resultatet framkom att föräldrarna upplever en djup och smärtsam sorg efter förlusten av sitt barn. Sorgarbetet tar lång tid för föräldrarna, deras sorgreaktioner kan variera mycket och sorgen är mycket individuell. Det är viktigt för föräldrarna att familj och vänner vågar vara nära genom sorgarbetet och föräldrarna upplever ett stort behov av att tala om sitt förlorade barn. Föräldrars relation och hälsa kan påverkas temporärt eller permanent under sorgarbetet eller förbli oförändrad. Trots den svåra sorgen lärde sig de flesta föräldrarna att uppskatta och njuta av livet igen. Studien riktas främst till sjuksköterskor men kan även tillämpas av andra som kommer i kontakt med sörjande föräldrar.

Each year over 3000 children in Sweden lose a parent. The loss of a parent may cause some grave changes in a child’s life, leading to both mental and physical consequences. The purpose of this literature study is to examine the different ways in which health care personnel can better receive and relate to children whose parents are dying or have passed away.

Data was collected through such sources as Pubmed, Academic Search Elite and Cinahl, which resulted in the inclusion of sixteen subsequent articles, ten of which were quantitative and six of which were qualitative. Thirteen of the said articles illustrate how children act in response to a dying or deceased parent and what measures were needed for them to move on with their lives. The child, bereaved parent and health care personnel were all examined within the studies. However, the authors of the remaining three Swedish articles had quite a different purpose from those already mentioned. There aim was to examine recommendations as to whether a child should visit a seriously ill relative at an Intensive Care Unit, as well as the subsequent opinions of both parent and health cars personnel to this visitation. Results showed that it was very beneficial for children and parents alike to receive information and support from health care personnel both during and after the parents period of suffering and eventual death. It was found that, if health care personnel or other adult for that matter regularly engaged with the child, alleviating any fears, then the risk for further psychological problems was reduced.

Varje år förlorar över 3000 barn i Sverige en förälder. Då ett barn förlorat en förälder innebär detta stora förändringar i deras liv som kan leda till konsekvenser för hälsan, både psykiskt och fysiskt. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att ta reda på hur vårdpersonal på olika sätt kan förhålla sig till och bemöta barn vars föräldrar är döende eller avlidit. Data samlades in genom sökningar i Pubmed, Academic Search Elite och Cinahl. Sökningen resulterade i sexton inkluderade artiklar. Av dessa var tio kvantitativa och sex kvalitativa. Tretton artiklar hade syftet att på olika sätt belysa frågan hur barn som hade en förälder som var döende eller avlidit reagerade och vad de behövde för att kunna gå vidare i sitt liv. Studierna hade både barnet, den överlevande föräldern och vårdpersonal som undersökningsgrupp. I tre svenska artiklar hade artiklarna ett annat syfte. De undersökte om det fanns rekommendationer för huruvida barn skulle besöka sina svårt sjuka anhöriga på en intensivvårdsavdelning och hur vårdpersonalen och föräldrarna tyckte om att barnen var på besök. Resultatet visade att det var värdefullt för både barn och föräldrar att få information och stöttning från vårdpersonal både under den döende förälderns sjukdom och även när föräldern avlidit. Om vårdpersonal eller någon annan vuxen regelbundet förklarar och pratar med barnet så minskar riskerna för att barnet skall få psykiska problem

For most parents there is no imaginable event more devastating than the death of their child. Nevertheless, while bereaved parents grieve they are also expected to carry on with their life. The day-to-day activities that were once routine for these parents may now be challenging due to the emotional turmoil they are experiencing. To date parental bereavement has been described as complex, intense, individualized, and life-long and their grief responses are interwoven with their daily activities, but the nature of their daily life challenges are not known.

This dissertation highlights the significance of how parents respond to their bereavement challenges because bereaved parents have higher morbidity and mortality rates than non-bereaved parents or adults who have lost their spouse or parents. Many bereaved parents in their daily routines include activities that allow them to maintain a relationship with their deceased child. These behaviors have been described as “continuing bonds”, but with this dissertation the continuing bonds concept is analyzed to provide a clear conceptual definition, which can be used for future research.

Using the Adaptive Leadership Framework as the theoretical lens and a mixed method, multiple case study design, the primary study in this dissertation aims to provides knowledge about the challenges parents face in the first six months following the death of their child, the work they use to meet these challenges, and the co-occurrence of the challenges, and work with their health status. Bereaved parents challenges are unique to their individual circumstances, complex, interrelated and adaptive, as they have no easy fix. Their challenges were pertaining to their everyday life without their child and classified as challenges related to: a) grief, b) continuing bonds, c) life demands, d) health concerns, f) interactions, and g) gaps in the health care system. Parents intuitively responded to the challenges and attempted to care for themselves. However, the role of the healthcare system to assist bereaved parents during this stressful time so that their health is not negatively impacted was also recognized. This study provides a foundation about parental bereavement challenges and related work that can lead to the development and testing of interventions that are tailored to address the challenges with a goal of improving bereaved parents health outcomes.

• what factors and corresponding experiences influence the adjustment of senior primary school children who have been bereft of a parent?
• what guidelines can be prescribed to effectively assist children who have been bereft of a parent?
• to identify and describe bereaved senior primary school children's perceptions of the death of a parent in terms of related factors and corresponding experiences; and
• to describe guidelines for assisting children who have been bereft of a parent based on the findings of the research.