Dr. David Schonfeld Calls for Doctors, Teachers & Other Professionals to Improve their Capacity to Provide Support for Grieving ChildrenNational Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, New York Life Foundation, Support Important Message to Educate and Inform
Newswise — Philadelphia, Pa. (August 29, 2011) – As the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks approaches, a noted child development expert urges doctors and nurses, teachers, and other professionals to enhance their skills in supporting children who are coping with grief and loss, according to a special article in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
"The approaching 10th year anniversary of September 11, 2001 should remind all of us that there is much that we can each do individually and collectively as a field to improve our capacity to support grieving children and to help them adjust more effectively and quickly to loss," writes Dr. David J. Schonfeld, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and Director of The National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement (NCSCB) at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
“The New York Life Foundation has been privileged to work with Dr. Schonfeld and the National Alliance of Grieving Children to help raise awareness of this critical issue for children who have had to deal with the death of a loved one. By increasing the national dialogue on this topic, we strive to ensure that children will get the opportunity to be heard and to get help in learning to cope with their loss,” said Chris Park, President, New York Life Foundation.
Many Grieving Children Don't Get Needed SupportAfter the September 11 attacks, many scientific and media reports described the traumatic impact of the attacks on children's mental health. "However, there wasn't adequate attention given to the bereavement needs of these children," according to Dr. Schonfeld. "Instead, there's been a tendency to focus almost exclusively on the posttraumatic reactions to the event." He believes an exclusive focus on posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic reactions may be limiting—"especially when it crowds out attention to bereavement and other adjustment difficulties."
There's a tendency to disregard or under-estimate the impact of loss on children when it is "just normal bereavement." However, Dr. Schonfeld thinks calling grief "normal" overlooks an important reality. "Just because it's typical doesn't mean that it isn't difficult for children," he says. "If we don't recognize that it's difficult and provide support, then children may unnecessarily suffer."
He draws a comparison to natural childbirth—a normal but nonetheless painful experience, for which most families seek professional support and assistance and accept professional involvement, if only to be sure that in the small percent of cases where skilled intervention is needed, they are able to receive it in a timely manner. "Yes, grieving the death of a loved one is a normative experience—but it still causes great distress and at least temporary dysfunction, and we should be ready to help children through that process."
Leading Institutions Offer Resources for Teachers, Doctors, and Other ProfessionalsAll professionals who work with children need to be sensitive to the needs of children grieving the loss of a parent or loved one, Dr. Schonfeld believes. "We say it's normal, but yet we have great discomfort dealing with this normative experience—so as a result we leave children to deal with it themselves," says Dr. Schonfeld. "We need to provide a level of support well beyond what we're currently doing." In addition to pediatricians, nurses, and other health care professionals, it's important for teachers to be able to provide basic support for grieving children. "Often teachers and schools will be the only professionals that initially will even know that a death has occurred that impacts a particular child," Dr. Schonfeld points out.
To help educators, health care professionals, and other concerned adults improve their ability to support grieving children, Dr. Schonfeld's article includes links to a number of useful resources from leading institutions:
• The New York Life Foundation offers a booklet titled, After a Loved One Dies—How Children Grieve, available as a free download at www.nylgriefguide.com. It is also available in Spanish. (The same website also includes links to other useful resources, including those listed below.) • The New York Life Foundation and Scholastic host an archived webcast for teachers titled Students & Grief—How to Deal with Loss in School. The webcast is available at http://www.scholastic.com/childrenandgrief/, which also includes links to useful supplemental materials.• The NCSCB provides publications and other resources for parents and teachers on its website, www.cincinnatichildrens.org/schoolcrisis. Resources include a PowerPoint slide presentation for use in training for educators and school staff and practical guidelines for schools on how to respond to a death of a student or staff member.• The American Academy of Pediatrics offers useful resources, tools and information on disaster preparedness on its Children & Disasters website, including a link to Dr. Schonfeld’s article. • Dr. Schonfeld, along with co-author Marcia Quackenbush, has written a book titled The Grieving Student: A Teacher's Guide, now available from Brookes Publishing Co.
Dr. Schonfeld expresses the hope that all professionals who work with children will take advantage of this opportunity to improve their ability to recognize and support children dealing with bereavement and loss. "Loss is inevitable in the lives of children," he concludes, "but whether or not we will be ready and able to support them is a decision that must be made consciously by each of us individually, collectively within our professional field and together as a society."
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About the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral PediatricsWritten for physicians, clinicians, psychologists and researchers, each bimonthly issue of the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics (www.jrnldbp.com) is devoted entirely to the developmental and psychosocial aspects of pediatric health care. Each issue brims with original articles, case reports, challenging cases and reviews—the latest work of many of today's best known leaders in related fields—that help professionals across disciplines stay current with the latest information in the field. Relevant areas covered include learning disorders, developmental disabilities, and emotional, behavioral, and psychosomatic problems. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics is the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
About Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) is a leading international publisher for healthcare professionals and students with nearly 300 periodicals and 1,500 books in more than 100 disciplines publishing under the LWW brand, as well as content-based sites and online corporate and customer services.
LWW is part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information, business intelligence and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry. Wolters Kluwer Health is part of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company with 2010 annual revenues of €3.6 billion ($4.7 billion).
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