A bereavement model for working with families of handicapped children

SUMMARY. This paper presents a model for counselling families of young handicapped children. It is argued that the process that parents go through following the birth of a handicapped child is akin to bereavement following loss. Therefore, professionals on a wide range of disciplines should be sensitive to the grief that parents are experiencing. The authors have used Le Poidevin s theory of adjustment to loss to structure their own theories and to devise a checklist to aid other professionals. Their experience indicates that the birth of the handicapped child may act as a catalyst for psychological growth in parents—mast particularly mothers.