Grief Counselors Important for Young Grievers
This end of the school year has proven fatal for many children and teens. One cannot help but notice headlines filled with abuse or other violence that ended the lives of innocent children. Teens are mourning the loss of their friends who died in auto collisions after prom or from alcohol use. What headlines often leave out, however, is how teens and children are affected by the death of their peers and how adults can help.
Grief in Children and Teens
American Hospice states young people do not understand the concept of death in the same way as adults. Like adults, children and teens feel “fear, anger, relief, despair, peace, guilt, numbness, agitation, and sorrow” after a death. Unlike most adults, these young people are more likely to feel abandoned, experience a loss of security or feel out of control.
Grief Counselors Help Young Grievers
The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) states grief counselors help children and teens recognize it is normal to feel negative emotions after the death of a peer, help reduce stress and teach the young people to develop healthy coping mechanisms. OMH also reports, “The heart of grief counseling…is validation.”
Grief counselors in schools are adults trained to help young people deal with a loss. They are psychologists, school counselors, trained disaster workers and even teachers. The supportive adults help students learn how to support grieving peers, work with parents of grieving students, provide professional referrals and offer students a variety of ways to express their feelings (like through art or dance).
How You Can Help
By the time children turn 18-years-old, 20 percent of them will have experienced the death of a peer, friend or family member. Whether you are a parent, counselor, teacher or work with young people, one of the best ways to help a grieving child or teen is by knowing how grief affects them in their different stages of life. Learn the appropriate things to say to children and youth of different ages and how to find resources to help them.
Read more about children and grief.
[photo: 62337512@N00]
Tags: childs death, grieving child, teen death
