ABSTRACT
School-based mental health specialists must prepare to work with students who are bereaved resulting from a death or other losses. Losses that trigger grief include suicide of a loved one, abandonment by a caregiver, school-based or community violence, incarceration or deportation of family members, or other crisis events. Grief is a complex, universal issue that has been widely explored by psychologists over the past 50 years. Much of the research about grief focuses on the impact of loss on adults. However, children also experience death and loss. Mannarino and Cohen (2011) report that “400,000 youth younger than age 25 will experience the death of a family member each year. Also, current statistics indicate that 1.9 million children younger than age 18 have lost one or both parents (Children's Bereavement Center of South Texas, 2008)” (p. 23). Yet research about the grieving process of children and adolescents is less frequently reported, and information about counseling interventions is slowly emerging. Because a child's developmental understanding of grief differs from adults, it is not uncommon for adults to dismiss, ignore, or fail to see the signs of grief in children. Adolescents, too, can suffer from this sort of neglect. Grief can have a dramatic impact on a student's ability to function in school. Grounded in theory and best practices, school counselors and school psychologists must play a key role in providing school-based support for grieving students.
