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Abstract
A national study revealed that parents felt isolated and unsupported by health professionals after the sudden death of their child and would have appreciated support from their health visitors. Health visitors in the same study felt that lack of training prevented them from visiting families. To encourage health visitors to visit, a bereavement assessment tool was designed, based on identification of stresses on a bereaved family, so that these could be reduced whenever possible. A randomised controlled trial was conducted in one region over two years, to assess the efficacy of the tool. The findings showed that the majority of all parents perceived support from their health visitors as good. Two thirds of all health visitors had received previous bereavement training. However, the assessment tool was well evaluated, especially in planning care. Health visitors who used it recommended that it should be made available to all health visitors.
Key words: sudden child death, support, bereaved families, health visitors, bereavement assessment tool
Community practitioner 2002; 75, 12: 469-473
Introduction
Each year in the UK, around 6000 children die suddenly from accidental deaths or unexpected illness, nearly half these deaths being children under one year.1 However, the statistics do not reflect the number of people affected.
Sudden child death is untimely, and unexpected, allowing no time for preparation of the death. Much personal suffering, far beyond a general sense of sadness and disquiet is likely to be experienced by parents, siblings and grandparents.2 The large number of somatic problems among bereaved parents indicates that they undergo a high degree of stress,3-4 others suggesting that sudden death and that of a child puts mourners at risk of experiencing a more difficult and prolonged bereavement.5-6
With the aim of establishing how well supported parents felt after the sudden death of their child (from one week to 12 years) from illness or accident, a quantitative, retrospective study was conducted in seven of the former regions of England and Wales.7
This demonstrated that while parents viewed hospital care immediately after the event as satisfactory on the whole, they believed that community care in the months after the death was sadly lacking, many feeling isolated and unsupported by professionals.
The parents reported that only 13% of GPs and...