Bereaved Children

by GROLLMAN, EARL A.

• ISBN13: 9780807023075
• ISBN10: 0807023078
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1996-08-31
• Publisher: Beacon Press

Summary

Bringing together fourteen experts from across the United States and Canada, Bereaved Children and Teens is a comprehensive guide to helping children and adolescents cope with the emotional, religious, social, and physical consequences of a loved one's death. The result is an indispensable reference for parents, teachers, counselors, health-care professionals, and clergy. Topics covered include what to say and what not to say when explaining death to very young children; how teenagers grieve differently from children and adults; how to translate Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish beliefs about death into language that children can understand; how ethnic and cultural differences can affect how children grieve; what teachers and parents can do to help bereaved young people at school; and activities, books, and films that help children and teens cope. "In this much-needed book, a group of carefully chosen authorities explore with sensitivity and wisdom the complex problems faced by those young people whom Rabbi Grollman so correctly calls "the forgotten mourners" . . . The authors have given us a work that is direct, thorough and--most of all--useful." --Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., F.A.C.S. author of How We Die, winner of the 1994 National Book Award

Author Biography

Earl A. Grollman, a pioneer in the field of crisis intervention, was rabbi of the Beth El Temple Center in Belmont, Massachusetts, for 36 years. A certified death educator and counselor, he was cited as "Hero of The Heartland" for his work with the families and volunteers of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Dr. Grollman has spoken at many colleges, clergy institutes, seminaries, physicians' forums, and hospital nursing associations, and has frequently addressed support groups such as The Compassionate Friends and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He has also appeared on numerous national television and radio programs, including the Oprah Winfrey Show, Children's Journal, All Things Considered, and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. He was featured on National Public Radio's The End of Life: Exploring Death in America series in the roundtable discussion on grief and bereavement.

He is the author of several books including Living When a Loved One Has Died, Straight Talk about Death for Teenagers, and Living When a Young Friend Commits Suicide.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Death, Development, and Relationships	p. 1
Explaining Death to Young Children: Some Questions and Answers	p. 3
Entering into Adolescent Understandings of Death	p. 21
Friends, Teachers, Movie Stars: The Disenfranchised Grief of Children	p. 37
Talking to Children about the Terminal Illness of a Loved One	p. 47
Toward Siblings' Understanding and Perspectives of Death	p. 61
Cultural, Philosophical, and Religious Perspectives on Death and Children	p. 75
Children and Death: Diversity in Universality	p. 77
Behind Smiles and Laughter: African-American Children's Issues about Bereavement	p. 93
Protestant Perspectives on Grief and Children	p. 113
Life, Death, and the Catholic Child	p. 129
Explaining Death to Children from Jewish Perspectives	p. 141
A Philosopher Looks at Children and Death	p. 159
Treatments and Therapies That Can Help Children Cope with Death	p. 169
Care of the Dying Child	p. 171
"I Thought about Death All the Time...": Students, Teachers, and the Understanding of Death	p. 181
Special Needs of Bereaved Children: Effective Tools for Helping	p. 195
Using Story, Film, and Drama to Help Children Cope with Death	p. 213
Index	p. 231
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