Neonatal Death: A Grief Intervention Framework

Abstract

The death of a neonate is an extremely heartbreaking loss that can result in overwhelming and overpowering grief responses. Because of the intensity of the grief reactions these parents experience it is absolutely imperative that social workers intervene appropriately with families whose baby has died. This article will review grief intervention and the application of this approach. Five grief intervention models will be discussed including Lindemann's (1944) stages of grief work, Bowlby's (1980) three phases of mourning, Rando's (1988) three phases of grief, Worden (2001) tasks of grief work and White's (1988) “saying hullo metaphor.” A case example will be used to describe the application of Worden's (2001) task model with a family whose twin babies have died on the NICU. Lastly, how this review and use of grief intervention models impacts social work practice on a NICU setting will be discussed. Ultimately, social workers should intervene according to the needs presented by these families or otherwise clinicians risk inflicting further pain and suffering on parents already experiencing the extreme anguish of grief.

A complicated grief intervention model

“…From the summary in Table 1, it is clear that literature on bereavement/grief models ranges from stages, phases, grief work, tasks, attachment, continuing bonds to oscillation between loss-orientation and restoration-orientation (Fleming & Robinson 2001;Kristjanson et al 2006;Lightbody 2005;Martin & Doka 2000;Parkes 2001;Stroebe 2002;Stroebe & Schut 1999;Worden 1991). Recent research on grief and bereavement in South Africa was done by Bopape (1995), Mdleleni-Bookholane (2003), and Strydom andFourie (1998), while Opperman (2004) researched the influence of context on complicated grief.…”

“…• models of bereavement (Fleming & Robinson 2001;Kristjanson et al 2006;Lightbody 2005;Martin & Doka 2000;Parkes 2001;Silvermann & Klass 1996;Stroebe & Schut 1999;Stroebe 2002;Worden 1991) • DPM (Matthews & Marwit 2004;Shaver & Tancredy 2001;Stroebe & Schut 1999;Zhang et al 2006) • Task-Centred approach (Doel 2006;Eaton & Roberts 2002;Ligon 2002;Milner & O'Byrne 1998;Reid & Fortune 2002;Watson & West 2006).…”