ABSTRACT
It is not always obvious who may be the first person in school to notice a child’s or family’s distress. In the case of bereavement it may well be the family themselves who ask for support because 1 in 29 school-aged children have experienced the death of a parent or sibling (Fauth et al. 2009). Bereavement can lead to extreme stress, putting huge demands on a family’s ability to cope. As professionals, if we ignore the impact of profound grief on family life, we are ignoring research that links unresolved grief in childhood with adult depression and mental ill health. The childhood bereavement network (https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203138830/886328ce-843b-472e-b681-2c9ce0cdb76d/content/www.childhoodbereavementnetwork.org.uk" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">www.childhoodbereavementnetwork.org.uk) states that 55% of bereaved children are more likely to have a diagnosable mental health disorder, and the research of Abdelnoor and Hollins (2004) demonstrates 60% of children who have lost a parent or sibling are more likely to be excluded from school and may underachieve at GCSE (Fauth et al. 2009). Jewett confirms ‘Growing evidence links childhood loss with depression, alcoholism, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies in adolescence and adulthood’ (1997: vi).
