Suchergebnisse

Shirley Seabury is a bereavement counsellor working within West Lothian Healthcare NHS Trust. She has extensive experience with parents whose baby has been stillborn or has died shortly after birth. In the following article, Shirley reflects upon her role, and adds her own perspective in the light of the publicity surrounding the retention of organs at AlderHey, and in Scotland, the McLean Report.

The three stages of grief counseling suggest guidelines about what to expect and what the counselor can do to assist the bereaved child and parent. The first stage focuses on the time of death, the second explores memories of the deceased, and the third considers present arrangements and future plans.

Background: Suicide-bereaved individuals represent an important group impacted by suicide. Understanding their experiences following the suicide of a loved one is an important research domain, despite receiving limited attention. Although suicide-bereaved individuals may benefit from mental health treatment, their attitudes toward therapy and therapists are poorly understood. Aims: The present study aimed to understand the extent to which bereaved individuals' attitudes toward therapy and therapists are impacted by whether their loved one was in therapy at the time of death. Method: Suicide-bereaved individuals (N = 243) from the United States were recruited to complete an online survey about their experience with and attitudes toward therapy and therapists following the suicide of a loved one. Results: Bereaved individuals whose loved one was in therapy at the time of death (N = 48, 19.8%) reported more negative and less positive attitudes toward the treating therapist than those whose loved one was not in therapy at the time of death (N = 81, 33.3%) or whose loved one was never in therapy/the deceased's therapy status was unknown (N = 114, 46.9%). Conclusion: The deceased's involvement with a therapist appears to be an important factor impacting the experience of bereaved individuals and should be considered when attempting to engage these individuals in postvention.