Philippine E-Journals

Forever Gone but not Forgotten: Towards Developing an Intervention Program for Bereaved Parents

Angeline L. Anastacio | Madelyn E Menor | Reynilda G Salandanan

 

Abstract:

Bereavement is a universal phenomenon whose effects vary from one person to another. Family counselors and other concerned professionals continue to explore, discover and develop theories of bereavement with the ultimate goal of helping the bereaved family overcome the pain of losing their loved one in no time at all. Many studies have been conducted along the themes of Loss and Grief over the death of parents or older members of the family but not many on parent's loss of a child. Losing somebody we love in death is a painful experience but losing a child is a loss like no other as it runs counter to the natural order of things. Acceptance and achieving life equilibrium afer the grieving process is the goal yet it entails a long process and needs a strong support system that would help the bereaved parents go through the process of grieving. More ofen than not, they let go of the physical body in death but not the memories, hence, the phrase "forever gone but not forgotten" Using the phenomenological qualitative design, in-depth conversations and interviews through focus group discussion (FGD) with parents who have lost a child due to illness or accident was conducted using William Wordem's Four Tasks of Grieving as a frame of reference in order to describe the experiences of parents along the process of grieving. Te study excludes parents who lost a child due to suicide. With a sample of ten participants, the study aimed to discover the experiences of loss and grief of the bereaved parents, the effects of loss on the parents during the process of bereavement, determine the interventions that participants believe must have been provided during their bereavement process and derive from them recommendations in order to design an intervention program that can be developed for the bereaved parents to establish life equilibrium afer the loss of their child.