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Grief Counselling Research Paper

Decent Essays

The Need for Expanded Grief Counselling

Although society has made many advances in the way that intellectually disabled persons are taken care of, grief counseling is one protrusive example of where society is falling short. Everyone is entitled to all appropriate resources available to enable them to effectively cope with death and loss, including those that are intellectually disabled (Hollins, 1995). Significant evidence shows that individuals with developmental disabilities require better access to adapted grief counseling due to their caregivers assuming that they don’t understand loss, an increased risk of behavioral and emotional disturbances, and they have a smaller support network.
Commonly, many in society make the assumption that …show more content…

Without a firm understanding of what a normal reaction to grief in people with ID is, and how it differs from a normal population our understanding of these individuals’ bereavement is largely based on their behavioral, emotional, and psychiatric changes (Dodd, Dowling, And Hollins, 2005).
Individuals with ID will normally grieve in very similar fashion to their non-disabled counterparts. General indications of grief can include physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses. Physical symptoms may include nausea, body aches and pains, and headaches. On the emotional side anger, guilt, jealousy, anxiety, sadness, and regret are commonly seen. (Doody, 2014). Cognitive responses exhibit as shock, disbelief, and denial of …show more content…

An incomplete understanding of grieving in the ID population, a lack of training for both professional and spiritual caregivers, and secondary loss all contribute to this reduced support structure.
Compared to a normally abled individual a person with ID’s support structure is drastically different (Moralez). Whereas a mainstream person will have numerous support structures based on daily life IE: A large social network containing friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and spouses, an ID person will typically have only a select few individuals that they have daily meaningful contact or communication with. Customarily the disabled individual will either live in a dependent relationship with their parents, or alternatively at a group home with their main contact being one or two main

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