Survey of bereaved parents.
A retrospective study in Vancouver was designed to evaluate parents' perceptions of support received after the death of a child up to 5 years old. The families were contacted with the help of health care professionals and the news media. A standardized questionnaire was used in a personal interview or occasionally by mail. The contact with health care professionals after the child's death was frequently considered by the 61 families not to have been helpful: 80% of the families judged the information or counselling they had received to be inadequate, and over 50% had received none; many listed comments and behaviour that they considered harmful. The families desired both full medical information and grief support; what forms such support could take are suggested.
D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003376:Counseling; D003643:Death; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires