Do bereaved children consult the primary health care team more frequently?
It is known that 2% of all children are bereaved of a parent before the age of 18, but there is little support available for these bereaved children in the community. It is not known if these children consult the primary health care team more frequently than their non-bereaved peers. A record-based, case-controlled pilot study of 13 bereaved children over a 2-year period was carried out in a group general practice. All children had been bereaved of a father through malignant disease, and were from seven families. Children who had been bereaved of a parent attended the surgery more frequently than their age/sex-matched controls. There was an observed increase in the frequency of consultations both in the year preceding and following the bereavement. Post-bereavement, over one-third of consultations were for symptoms for which no organic cause could be found. The support needs of these bereaved children did not appear to be addressed. Further research is required to investigate the optimum means of providing support by the primary health care team for the small but significant number of children who are bereaved each year.
Leicestershire Hospice, UK.
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M
Lloyd-Williams
C
C
Wilkinson
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FF
Lloyd-Williams
D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001601:Bereavement; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003643:Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002666:Psychology, Child