Child grief and traumatic loss

Children who lose a loved one to death may receive support from family and programs like hospice. This is not true in chaotic families and for most foster children,. Young children and children with loss to homicide and suicide are commonly denied access to funerals, memorabilia, and someone to listen to their fears. Los Angeles County has addressed this problem with a multiagency working group that includes Child Protective Services, Mental Health, the multiagency child abuse prevention council, schools, Children's Hospital Child Life Specialists, and a major community service program. Results include new programs to support CPS workers, crises programs for children and an annual conference with national experts. The county foster care receives about 100 children a year because of a family death. About 1/3 of these involve homicide or suicide. Over ½ of the 3,000 children in foster care with mental health services have death as an issue that has been ignored. Similar patterns seem to exist with delinquent children. A child may be in the system and in therapy and not even be told of the death. Mental health programs do not have services in place to address death. New programs being developed include training, crises referral and peer support groups for toddlers to teens and their parents. Groups provide service for most children and provide a filter for mental health services for those needing more intervention. Material from these programs and the annual conference will be shared.