Rick's House of Hope

Bereaved Children are at Risk

Know the Facts:

6% of children under the age of 18 will experience the death of a parent.
Dying: Facing the Facts, 1988

That means of the 90,484 minor children in the Iowa-Illinois Metro Area (2000 Census Reports), 5,429 children have experienced the death of a parent.

What happens to these children?

The needs of grieving children are often overlooked.

“Parental bereavement during childhood increases the risk of depression in adulthood by a factor of about two or three.”
C. Lloyd. “Life Events and Depressive Disorder Reviewed,” Arch General Psychiatry, 37, 1980.

“One bereaved child in five is likely to develop a psychiatric disorder...the highest rates of reported difficulties are found in boys.”
L. Dowdney.  Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, October 2000.

86-92% of young people in drug and rehabilitation treatment programs have experienced the death of someone important.  The respondents say they turned to drugs and alcohol to numb their feelings because they knew of no other way to cope with their grief.

In a survey of 300 incarcerated teens, 96% indicate that someone significant in their lives had died.

More than 50% of all youth incarcerated for criminal acts lived in one-parent families when they were children.

85% of all prisoners on death row experienced the death of a parent during their childhood.

What can be done?

“The most instinctive place bereaved children and teens turn when in crisis is to their peers who have experienced similar losses.  Peer support groups help counter the sense of isolation many bereaved children encounter in our mourning-avoidant culture.”
Alan D. Wolfelt
Author, Healing the Bereaved Child
Director, Center for Loss and Life Transition
Fort Collins, Colorado

“Inadequate and unrealistic communication about death was the most significant situational factor in children who were having difficulty working through their grief.”
K Siegel, F. Mesagno, G. Christ.  “A Prevention Program for Bereaved Children”, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 1990.

“Those people who lost a parent to death were more likely than controls to experience God as more distant, inaccessible, impersonal and mythical....those who reported more grief resolution were more likely to experience God as sovereign, powerful and eternal.”
Sharon Kay Shackel. “The Effects of Parental Death During Childhood on Adult Experience of God,” June 2001.

At Rick’s House of Hope we can help you find the words to talk to your child about the painful subjects of death, grief and mourning.  We will assess your child’s needs and recommend a support program suitable for addressing those needs.  Rick’s House of Hope is a program of Prairie & River Spiritual Resources - a division of the Spiritual Care Department at Genesis Medical Center.

For more information about Rick's House Of Hope, call Rick's House of Hope at 563-324-9580.