Grief counseling experiences of bereaved children in a memorial service — ASN Events

Grief counseling experiences of bereaved children in a memorial service (#568)

Ching-Hui Chung 1 , Ching-Hui Chung
  1. Mackay Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City , Taiwan

Memorial services are important ceremony in bereavement care in hospice. There are different bereavement needs under different culture and social, economical. The best time to invite the bereaved to a memorial service was from three to six months after a patient died. Memorial services were designed for bereaved adults in hospitals, but not including their children. Most of bereaved adults don’t know how to talk about death with children, think children don’t understand the meaning of death and don’t hope them contact with hospitals. The bereaved children’s feelings and grief were ignored easily. This case report investigated bereaved children whose were from three to six months after their father or mother died and elementary school students between fourth and sixth grade participated an exclusive memorial service. In the process of grief counseling, the authors employed the fundamental communication skills with four principles “Ask-Tell-Ask”, “Tell me more”, “Respond to emotion” and “Assess their coping style” to induce them to recall their life and relationships in the family and school in the past few months and assess their grief reaction and adjustment in September 2011. The authors also employed creative activities to express their emotions that may be difficult in just talking grief. Bereaved children try hard to learn correct understanding of death, build a new relationship with their surroundings and adapt themselves to the new life, so they need companionship and positive support. The authors hope to develop the memorial service of bereaved children in Oncology and hospice. This case may provide a reference for treating similar clinical cases in the future.