Living With Grief: Children, Adolescents, and Loss, (2000) edited by Kenneth J. Doka
This book features articles by leading educators and clinicians in the field of grief and bereavement. The chapters entitled "Voices" are the writings of children and adolescents. The book includes a comprehensive resource list of national organizations and a useful bibliography of age-appropriate literature for children and adolescents. Below is a list of current chapters and authors.
Foreword
Jack D. Gordon
Part I: Theoretical Overview
1. The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies
Robert Kastenbaum
2. What Do We Know About Grieving Children and Adolescents?
Charles A. Corr
Practical Suggestions: Eight Myths About Children, Adolescents, and Loss
3. Adolescents, Grief, and Loss
David E. Balk
Voices: No One at School Knew
Tammy Sarah Janczuk
4. Culture and Class: The Different Worlds of Children and Adolescents
Margarita Suarez and Susan McFeaters
Voices: Where’s Your Father?
Anonymous
5. The Role of The School
Stan Johns
Voices: Counterpoint—A Dialogue
Part II: Clinical Approaches with Children and Adolescents
6. To Everything There is a Season: Empowering Families and Natural Support
Systems
Earl A. Grollman
7. Counseling Approaches with Children and Adolescents
Dottie Ward-Wimmer
and Carol Napoli
Voices: How I Coped with Loss
Brett Hardy Blake
8. Part of Me Died Too: Creative Strategies for Grieving Children and
Adolescents
Virginia Lynn Fry
9. Play Therapy to Help Bereaved Children
Nancy Boyd Webb
10. Using Ritual with Children and Adolescents
Kenneth J. Doka
Voices: It’s Impossible to Tell Someone How to Grieve
Maggie Smith
11. The Use of Groups with Grieving Children and Adolescents
Donna L.
Schuurman
12. Magical Dreams, Visions of Reality: Guidelines for Developing a Grief
Center for Children
Rebecca Sloan Byrne
Practical Suggestions: Talking to a Grieving Child: A Guide for Classroom
Teachers
13. The role of Death Education in Helping Students to Cope with Loss
Robert G. Stevenson
Practical Suggestions: When A Student or Staff Member Dies: An Action Plan
for Schools
Part III: Special Losses
14. When Parents Die
Phyllis R. Silverman
Voices: I Never Knew My Dad
Keith Whitehead
15. Sibling Bereavement: We Are Grieving Too
Betty Davies
16. The Military Model for Children and Grief
Bonnie Carroll and Major Judy
Matthewson
Voices: A Military Death
Elizabeth Kaskeski
17. In the Aftermath: Children and Adolescents as Survivor-Victims of
Suicide
Terry L. Martin
18. Grief and Traumatic Loss: What Schools Need to Know and Do
Peter L.
Sheras
18. Resonating Trauma: A Theoretical Note
Jack D. Gordon and Kenneth J.
Doka
Using Books To Help Children and Adolescents Cope With Death: Guidelines
and Bibliography
Charles A. Corr
Resource Organizations
References
Foreword
Living With Grief: Children, Adolescents, and Loss
Jack D. Gordon, President
Hospice Foundation of America
Upon reading the title of this book, many people may be struck by reminders of traumatic events involving children and loss. The images of teens sobbing after tragic school shootings in Littleton and Jonesboro, or young children being lead away from a day care center after a random attack, are forever burned into our memories. These events are indeed powerful reminders of the uncertainty that faces all of us every day. While the number of children and adolescents directly affected by these random incidents is relatively small, the impact on the nation’s consciousness has been enormous.
If something positive can be learned from these events, it may be that these situation help people begin to understand what death educators and hospice professionals have always known: Children and adolescents, as well as adults, face a myriad of losses every day, and they do grieve these losses. Of course, loved ones die—grandparents, parents, siblings, schoolmates. So do beloved pets—often a child’s first experience with death.
Other losses do not involve death, but can generate grief reactions. One of the most significant loss situations facing children in our society is divorce. Children also may have to relocate, or go to a new school. And, as children move into adolescence, there are the more subtle but important losses—loss of identity, loss of roles, loss of self-esteem.
We are focusing on the topic of children, adolescents, and loss in this book, and in our 7th annual National Bereavement Teleconference, to help people recognize that loss does impact children and adolescents, and that they do grieve. We feel it is important to include more than an adult perspective on these issues, so throughout the book you’ll find essays called "Voices"—articles written by children and adolescents, conveying their perspectives on loss in their own words.
The book and the teleconference both emphasize another critical factor grounded in more current conceptions of the grief process—that grief is not something you "get over." This understanding has especially important ramifications for young people. Losses that they experience early in life may be revisited at critical developmental stages or during important life events. The more that educators, counselors, school administrators, parents, and anyone else who works with children and adolescents realize this, the more equipped they will be to help young people cope with grief and incorporate loss in their lives in ways that are mentally and physically healthy.
Hospice, as the only medical system of care that deals with the emotional and spiritual aspects of death and dying, has always understood the impact of grief and loss on children and adolescents. Many hospices offer support groups for children. In addition, more and more communities now have independent children’s grief centers. While traumatic images of young people and loss may linger in our collective memory, the best way to help and prepare children for the future is through education and understanding of the day-to-day ramifications that loss and grief have on them. This book is designed to help the adults involved with children and adolescents to provide that education and understanding.
Jack D. Gordon
President
Hospice Foundation of America
[Note: Mr. Gordon served as Chairman and CEO of HFA until his death in 2005.]
NOTE: This book is temporarily out of print. Available again Summer 2007.
Sample Chapters: