Bereavement and loss have significant impact on the lives of individuals with intellectual disability (ID). Although there is a growing impetus to define the symptoms of grief that predict long-term functional impairment, little is known about maladaptive grieving among individuals with ID. We examine the literature concerning the phenomenology of traumatic grief (TG) in the general population, along with what is known about the manifestations of grief in individuals with ID. We then apply modern theories of grief and grief resolution to individuals with ID in order to highlight potential areas of vulnerability in this population and to lay the groundwork for interventions that will facilitate their adaptation to loss. We provide a theoretical framework for the proposition that individuals (including children and adults) with ID are more susceptible to TG, based on an increased risk of secondary loss, barriers to communicating about the loss, and difficulty finding meaning in the loss. We conclude that individuals with ID should be considered as potential candidates for targeted bereavement interventions. Further research is required, however, in order to develop population-appropriate measurement scales for testing these hypotheses.
Keywords grief; bereavement; intellectual disabilityEarly psychodynamic theories of grief suggest that only those who are capable of understanding the finality of death, and who are able to perform the arduous psychological task of withdrawing emotion from the deceased, will be capable of mourning. [1][2][3][4] Even without a cognitive understanding of death, however, it is possible to notice the absence of a loved one and to react emotionally to that loss. In his formulation of attachment theory, John Bowlby 5-7 provided the first theoretical framework for the proposition that even young children can grieve following the loss of an attachment figure. Since then, studies have confirmed that children react with grief, sadness, and despair to the death of loved ones. 8 Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) have long been considered incapable of griefjust as young children once were. It has been suggested that individuals with ID * do not possess either the necessary capacity to form meaningful relationships 9,10 or the necessary