A recently published book about how parents cope with the death of children from suicide or drug overdose -- Devastating Losses -- reports on groundbreaking research into grief after stigmatized deaths. According to a review in Clinical Social Work Journal (click on "Look Inside" for free access to the article),
Clinical and social science researchers have paid little attention to the experiences of parents grieving the loss of children to suicide, despite the fact that suicide is one of the leading causes of death for adolescents ... The large study reported on in Devastating Losses ... represents a substantial and important response to this call, with findings that are both clinically relevant and likely to inspire future research related to grieving parents.The book is noteworthy, as well, because its lead author and one of the co-authors, Bill and Bev Feigelman, respectively, are a husband and wife who lost their own son to suicide in 2003. The review points out that the Feigelman's "were able to use their personal experience of traumatic loss to guide their research questions and deeply sensitive approach to the topic":
Devastating Losses is a testament to the important role of meaning-making in grief work, in this case the power of scholarly inquiry in the context of profound personal loss.
RSS Feed