Development and implementation of a bereavement follow‐up intervention for grieving fathers: an action research

Abstract

New information about the fathers' grief and bereavement follow-up support is described. The model developed is evidence-based and can be applied in nursing care where grieving fathers and families are met.

Evaluating a bereavement follow‐up intervention for grieving mothers after the death of a child

“…The internet also offers possibilities for peer support (20). Earlier studies also confirm the benefit of follow-up calls made by health care professionals (21,22). According to Lohan and Murphy (23), attention should be paid especially to parents who have experienced a sudden, traumatic death of their child.…”

“…The aim of the training was to inform the practitioners of the theoretical and practical grounds for introducing the new policy, to motivate them and to provide detailed instructions for implementing the policy. Differences between the units were taken into consideration while preparing the policy, but otherwise there were no differences between the intervention components and the timing of the implementation (21).…”

“…The intervention includes three complementary components: (i) a support package, (ii) peer supporters' contact and 3) health care personnel's contact (21). The support package consists of informational letters (information on the process of mourning, parent's grief, mother's grief, father's grief, children's and adolescents' grief, grandparents' grief, the effects of a child's death on different family members and their coping strategies, information on sudden infant death syndrome and research into it, information on accidental death of children and neonatal and perinatal death, crisis care), poems and stories about the loss of child.…”

Mother’s experience of the support from a bereavement follow‐up intervention after the death of a child

“…The accurate description of the intervention, controlling the factors and measuring the different forms of support received, provides new information on the implementation of interventions. The study is part of a broader bereavement research project where a support intervention for bereaved parents was developed and tested (Aho et al. 2010, 2011).…”

Waltzing Matilda

“…Movies and television shows rarely show grieving men (unless, of course, their grief is destructive). Practitioner research on men's grief has been scant (Aho et al 2011;Flenady and Wilson 2008). Men themselves often grieve solitarily, so they might find it hard to learn by example.…”