Dealing With Dying Death And Grief During Adolescence

For some, life’s introduction to death and grief comes early, and when it does it can take many forms. Not only does Dealing with Dying, Death, and Grief during Adolescence tackle them all, it does so with David Balk’s remarkable sensitivity to and deep knowledge of the pressures and opportunities adolescents face in their transition from childhood to adulthood. In seamless, jargon-free language, Balk brings readers up to date with what we know about adolescent development, because over time such changes form the backstory we need to comprehend the impact of death and bereavement in an adolescent’s life. The book’s later chapters break down the recent findings in the study of life-threatening illness and bereavement during adolescence. And, crucially, these chapters also examine interventions that assist adolescents coping with these difficulties. Clinicians will come away from this book with both a grounded understanding of adolescent development and the adolescent experience of death, and they’ll also gain specific tools for helping adolescents cope with death and grief on their own terms. For any clinician committed to supporting adolescents facing some of life’s most difficult experiences, this integrated, up-to-date, and deeply insightful text is simply the book to have. David E. Balk is professor in the department of health and nutrition sciences at Brooklyn College (CUNY), where he directs the graduate program in thanatology. He is the author of Adolescent Development: Early Through Late Adolescence, Helping the Bereaved College Student, and several other books on death and bereavement. He is also co-editor of the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Thanatology (Routledge, 2013).

"Capturing from the start that 'Childhood is, and always has been, a vulnerable time,' we have a rich in gathering of contributed pieces that bring us into the raw, fragile arena of children traumatized by life events and behaviors..." --Illness, Crisis, and Loss "Balk and Corr again have edited a book that will set the direction of the field for yet another decade....Caregivers can count on this book...for insight and intervention." --From the Foreword by Kenneth J. Doka, PhD Professor, The Graduate School, The College of New Rochelle Author, Counseling Individuals With Life-Threatening Illness Over a decade has passed since the publication of Balk and Corr's groundbreaking Handbook of Adolescent Death and Bereavement. This new book, Adolescent Encounters With Death, Bereavement, and Coping, analyzes the challenges faced by adolescents coping with death, dying, and bereavement, and examines the new, unique circumstances and advances that have transpired over the last decade. These include: Grief and coping with HIV/AIDS Adolescents, humor, and death Technology and the Internet: coping with loss in the digital world Bereavement over the deaths of celebrities The book also explores critical, imaginative conceptual frameworks and models that have emerged on the scene, including: The dual process model for understanding loss Ideas about assumptive worlds Debates about the benefit and harm of grief counseling New research on recovery and resilience following bereavement Written from the interdisciplinary perspectives of expert sociologists, psychologists, educators, social workers, nurses, and anthropologists, this book offers a breadth and depth of insight into the complex nature of adolescent bereavement. Nurses, counselors, social workers, and educators will find this book to be an invaluable resource when they try to understand and help adolescents coping with death-related issues.

Living With Grief: Children, Adolescents, and Loss, (2000) edited by Kenneth J. Doka, features articles by leading educators and clinicians in the field of grief and bereavement. The chapters entitled "Voices" are the writings of children and adolescents. The book includes a comprehensive resource list of national organizations and a useful bibliography of age-appropriate literature for children and adolescents.

Understanding Child and Adolescent Grief incorporates theory, clinical applications, case studies, and current research on contemporary models of grief pertaining to children and adolescents. The integration of developmental perspectives, attachment theory, and neurobiological implications provides a thorough summary of the many factors that can affect a child's growth and development, and the subsequent influence on grief expression. Chapters explore relevant social topics rarely addressed in other texts, such as the death of African American men, suicide among Aboriginal youth in Canada, death/suicide among LGBTQ youth and social media's influence. Also included are practical tips for helping professionals who want to better understand how grief and loss affect children and teens, as well as a meditation guide that provides concrete opportunities for growth and healing.

In this comprehensive handbook, Charles Corr and David Balk improve our understanding of the challenges faced by adolescents when coping with death, dying, and bereavement. The volume is organized into three parts. Part I addresses specific issues involved in confrontations with death. Part II focuses on the role of bereavement. Part III explains specific therapeutic interventions for caregivers. The authors introduce us to adolescence as a special time in the human life cycle, a period quite separate from childhood and adulthood. They establish normative adolescents, and explain developmental tasks that are typical of early, middle, and late adolescence.

In this unique and compassionate guide, renowned grief counselor Helen Fitzgerald turns her attention to the special needs of adolescents struggling with loss and gives teens the tools they need to work through their pain and grief. Although the circumstances surrounding a death are difficult to handle at any age, adolescence brings with it challenges and struggles that until now have been largely overlooked. Writing not only about but also for teenagers, Fitzgerald adeptly covers the entire range of situations in which teens may find themselves grieving a death, whether the cause was old age, terminal illness, school violence, or suicide. She helps teens address the gamut of strong and difficult emotions they will experience and the new situations they will face, including family changes, issues with friends, problems at school, and the courage needed to move forward with one's own life. Using the clear and accessible format that has made The Mourning Handbook and The Grieving Child enduring and helpful classics, Fitzgerald guides teens through everything from the sickbed to the funeral, from the first day back at school to the first anniversary of the death. Above all, she lets teens know that even in their darkest hour, they are not alone.

A collection of forty chapters which are divided into three separate volumes. This series answers the question: how do we as educators, clinicians, other professionals, and parents help children and adolescents deal with threat to their lives, dying, death, and bereavement?

The topic of death and related issues (such as grief) often begin with questions. When the questions come from, or are about, children or adolescents, they bring an additional component...the fear some adults have of giving a “wrong” answer. In this context a wrong answer is one that can cause more harm than good for the child or adolescent who asked the question. This book provides information that can be used to address the death-related questions from children and adolescents. It also looks at questions from caring adults about the way children or adolescents view death and the grief that follows a death or any major loss. Children, Adolescents, and Death covers topics that start with early studies of childhood grief and progress to expression of grief in cyberspace. There is no one answer to most of the questions in this book. There are contributors from a number of continents, countries, cultures, and academic disciplines, each of whom brings a unique view of the topic issues they discuss. There are presentations of practical interventions that others may copy, upon which they can build. There are a number of chapters that look at death education in both family and school settings. This work contains ideas and techniques that can be of value to parents, educators, counselors, therapists, spiritual advisors, caring adults and, of course, will be of the most benefit to those who ask the most questions...the children and adolescents themselves.