Vilken buss går till himlen? Hur professionella inom sjukvården arbetar med barn som förlorat en förälder

Abstract

When a parent dies, a person’s life comes to an end while others are forever changed. The aim of this thesis is to explore and identify the needs of bereaved children and to investigate how professionals within the Swedish public health care system, work to support children in grief. The empirical part of this study was conducted over the course of two months in 2013. Four hospital counselors and one child psychologist in the Swedish region of Skåne served as subjects. The interviews were semi-structured and recorded using audio equipment. The empirical material was then analyzed using theories about communication and parental attachment. The results show that when a child loses a parent this can have profound effects on their mental health and development. Grief in children is often expressed differently from one child to another and can sometimes be misinterpreted by adults. In addition, bereaved children have a great need of adult support to help them understand and process what has happened. However, the results also show that adults often refrain from speaking to bereaved children about death in an effort to shield or protect them from reality. Consequently, children who need help to cope with the loss of a parent may feel lonely in their grieving process. For this reason, professionals working with bereaved children must often try to support parents in order to succeed in supporting their children

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