Losing a child:Understanding parental need for bereavement support
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Losing a child: Multi-site Case Study to Gain Better Understanding of Parental Need for Bereavement Support to Inform Service Development.
IRAS ID
172036
Contact name
Ciara Barr
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research Governance
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Losing a Child: A multi-site case study to gain better understanding of parental need for bereavement support to inform service development.
This study will investigate parental need for bereavement support, following the death of a child from a life limiting condition. Examples of life limiting conditions, to name a few, are as follows: cancer; cystic fibrosis; muscular dystrophy; brain or spinal cord injury. Many children are also at risk of dying in the new born period, due to causes such as prematurity or abnormalities that threaten their ability to survive.
The study aims to explore the needs of parents that have lost a child with a life limiting condition, and to examine what bereavement care works well for parents and what needs to be improved upon. Investigation will centre on the support offered to parents from children’s hospices in two different locations in the United Kingdom.
In order to gain a clearer picture of parental need for bereavement support and to understand what is currently being offered to bereaved parents, it is necessary to interview bereaved parents and managerial staff at hospices and to group interview professionals and volunteers that are involved in providing bereavement support for parents within the hospice.
Parents that have lived through the experience of losing a child with a life limiting condition will be interviewed face to face. The parents will have been accessing services from a children’s hospice, regardless of whether the child passed away in a hospice, at home or in a hospital.
Professionals are the people that work within the hospice and who organise and deliver bereavement support for bereaved parents. They will be interviewed together in groups, in order to find out what they feel works for parents, and what does not.
The information gathered in this study may inform future service delivery
REC name
HSC REC B
REC reference
15/NI/0223
Date of REC Opinion
3 Dec 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion