With the current shift to include positive outcomes of trauma, this research was designed to explore factors that allow growth to occur. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model for understanding posttraumatic growth. A sample (N = 174) of bereaved HIV/AIDS caregivers completed questionnaires. Spirituality, social support, and stressors were found to have a positive relationship with growth. Facilitation of posttraumatic growth is crucial to all helping professions.

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The compassionate communities movement challenges the notion that death and dying should be housed within clinical and institutional contexts, and works to normalize conversations about death and dying by promoting death literacy and dialogue in public spaces. Community-based practices and conversations about grief remain marginal in this agenda. We aimed to theorize how grief could be better conceptualized and operationalized within the compassionate communities movement. We develop the concept of Grief Literacy and present vignettes to illustrate a grief literate society. Grief literacy augments the concept of death literacy, thereby further enhancing the potential of the compassionate communities approach.

In this 3-year prospective grounded theory study in three pediatric settings, we aimed to develop a conceptualization of best practice health care providers (BPHCPs) in interaction with parents of children with complex, chronic, life-threatening conditions. Analysis of semistructured interviews with 34 parents and 80 health care professionals (HCPs) and 88 observation periods of HCP/parent interactions indicated that BPHCPs shared a broad worldview; values of equity, family-centered care, and integrity; and a commitment to authentic engagement. BPHCPs engaged in direct care activities, in connecting behaviors, and in exquisitely attuning to particularities of the situation in the moment, resulting in positive outcomes for parents and HCPs. By focusing on what HCPs do well, findings showed that not only is it possible for HCPs to practice in this way, but those who do so are also recognized as being the best at what they do. We provide recommendations for practice and initial and ongoing professional education.

Children with perinatally-acquired HIV are living into adolescence and adulthood. As this is a relatively new phenomenon, there is a paucity of research highlighting the complex issues that arise for these children. This qualitative case-study examines the needs of a select group of older children (9-16 years old) with perinatally-acquired HIV in the province of British Columbia, Canada through focus groups and interviews conducted with ten HIV-infected children, 11 family members and 11 service providers. The needs of this population are diverse, reflecting its heterogeneity. However, participants consistently highlighted issues of stigma, sexual health and mental health as major areas of current and future concern. Continued support, education and future planning in these areas are necessary for older HIV-infected children as they transition out of childhood.

Parents who experience the sudden death of a child will interact with many professionals in the period immediately following the death notification through to the funeral. The way these professionals respond to the parents during this critical period may be perceived as helpful, and thus support them in beginning the process of managing the trauma and starting a healthy grieving process. It may also be perceived as unhelpful, though, and contribute to more prolonged and complicated grieving. This article identifies the interventions that a sample of 20 parents who had experienced the sudden death of a child found helpful with different aspects of grieving. Specific advice is given to police,

Social workers play an important role in the delivery of Hospice Palliative Care in many diverse settings. The profession brings a unique perspective to end-of-life care that reflects and supports the holistic philosophy of Hospice Palliative Care. Despite the prominent and longstanding position of social work in this area, the role and functions of social workers had not been clearly defined. A Canadian task group of social work practitioners and educators utilized a modified Delphi process to consult front line clinicians nationally, and thereby achieved consensus regarding the identification and description of eleven core competencies in Hospice Palliative Care. These competencies are relevant for social workers at different experience levels across care settings. They can be used to inform social work practice, as well as professional development and educational curricula in this area.

In the context of traumatic stress, the dominant discourse has mainly focused on distress, thus undermining the role that eustress has in traumatic experiences. One of the few exceptions to this has been the research on posttraumatic growth, which has generated much interest since its beginning. There is an increasing interest in posttraumatic growth in various cultures and hence an expansion of the measure, the Post Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), into various languages. This article is the first to perform a rigorous investigation of the psychometric properties of the PTGI, including the scale and subscale reliability, inter-item and subscale correlations, and using a CFA approach. The properties are established with a French translation using two populations of caregivers: those bereaved by HIV/AIDS and parents who are caring for a child with a life-limiting illness. These properties were determined for both the original 21 item scale as well as the shortened version.