Bereaved Children and Adolescents: Assessment and Diagnosis (IN: Helping the Bereaved: Therapeutic Interventions for Children, Adolescents, and Adults, by A S Cook & D S Dworkin)

The main discussion in this chapter is on special aspects of child & adolescent grief including: the need to assess the young person’s opportunities to participate in grief rituals & to ask questions about the death; the use of nonverbal means, e.g. drawings, to obtain the child’s perspective; the use of parents & teachers as valuable sources of information about the bereaved young person; & assessing gestures of suicide in this population; these may take unique forms so traditional means of lethality assessment may not be appropriate.