DO CHILD AND OR PARENT BEREAVEMENT PROGRAMS WORK

Bereavement programs for children and parents are becoming popular sin ce there are more and more neonatal intensive care programs, pediatric oncology programs and pediatric intensive care programs offering thes e services. This paper addresses the following question: Do bereavemen t programs work? An overview of the literature dating back to 1964 was undertaken. Only papers dealing with treatment were reviewed. Randomi zed controlled trials were selected as presenting the best evidence fo r or against program effectiveness. Methodologic features such as desc ription of the sample, comparability of treatment and control groups, description of the intervention, use of objective, valid, reproducible and blinded outcome measures, sample size calculations, thoroughness of follow-up and attention to clinical as well as statistical signific ance were assessed. Four randomized controlled trials were found in th e literature search. Two of the studies showed benefit, two did not. A ll four suffered significant methodologic flaws. At this time it is un clear as to whether or not bereavement programs help families. Given t he high costs of health care, it is important that studies be done to determine which families are likely to benefit from bereavement progra ms and what type of program is effective.