Saturday 6 October 2012

Physical & developmental effects of childhood bereavement - New studies

'Father & Daughter ' (c) Helene Souza
Examining potential correlations between childhood bereavement and long term adverse mental and physical effects continues to provide considerable ground for research.   

Two recent studies present new insights into little explored long term issues for parentally bereaved children.

Brent et al in 'Longitudinal effects of parental bereavement on adolescent developmental competence' examine the extent to which sudden parental bereavement in childhood hinders developmental competency. Their  longitudinal study reported outcomes for 126 children who had experienced a sudden parental death, comparing to a similar non bereaved control group at various intervals up to 5 years post bereavement.
Their findings indicated children who had experienced sudden loss of a parent illustrated less competence in educational development, career planning and peer relations into adulthood.

Dietz et al in an article pre published this week in Biological Psychiatry examine cortisol response in parentally bereaved children. 

Their research which sampled cortisol in 181 bereaved and non bereaved subjects over a 5 year period found a higher cortisol output in children who had experienced parental bereavement. 
They conclude that this higher incidence of cortisol may represent an increased health risk worthy of further study.    


Tuesday 2 October 2012

UK seminar on children and bereavement


Children and Bereavement
A Seminar in University of Bath, UK on  7 December 2012 10.00 – 13.00

The seminar will feature the following:

 
Dr Ana Draper, Macmillan Consultant Systemic Psychotherapist

'The associations between Parental Childhood Bereavement and Delinquent Behaviour'

Dr Ana Draper is a Consultant Systemic Psychotherapist working in the Community Palliative Care team in Hertfordshire. She has developed and clinical supported a multi-system therapeutic service working with bereaved families and has been a consultant for the Childhood Bereavement Network. She has authored information and therapeutic story books for parents and children as well as academic papers on therapeutic work in palliative care. She has spoken at the House of Commons about issues concerning childhood bereavement, as well as teaching modules and short courses at the Tavistock Mental Health Trust, KCC foundation and Kings College, London. She has also supported NGO’s in Malawi and Ecuador by providing training for clinicians working in a palliative setting.

 

Dr Rachel Fearnley, CDAS Associate and Teaching Fellow, University of Bath

‘The Communication Continuum: Research into Practice’

This seminar presentation explores the importance of communicating with children when a parent or significant person has a life threatening illness. Parents and professionals are often mindful of talking to the children about the illness and possible death of the parent. However, there is growing research that highlights the importance of talking with children and the negative consequences when these conversations do not take place. The Communication Continuum is a model that offers a practical resource when working with children who are living with a parent (or other significant person) who has a life threatening illness. Drawing on the work of Glaser and Strauss the model can provide a practical tool for practitioners when they are assessing the quality and quantity of information that children have about their parent’s illness.

Rachel Fearnley’s PhD explored children’s experiences when a parent is at the end of life. Rachel is a CDAS associate and teaching fellow at the University of Bath and an independent researcher / consultant. Rachel is a qualified and registered social worker.

 

Dr Jane McCarthy, Department of Social Policy and Criminology, Open University.

Title tbc

Jane is the author of 'Young People's Experiences of Bereavement and Loss: Towards an Inter-disciplinary Approach', 2006, Open University Press.

 
Please use the University of Bath online booking system to book your place on this seminar: http://store.bath.ac.uk/browse/product.asp?catid=155&modid=1&compid=1

 
Attendance at all CDAS seminars is free of charge.

Details of this and all seminars in the series can be found on our website: