Grief: The Unrecognized Parental Response to Mental Illness in a Child.

The article describes the grief of parents whose child has a mental illness. To be helpful to those who are parents of a mentally ill son or daughter and to those who counsel these parents, this article brings together some of what is known about parental grief and highlights the necessity of addressing it appropriately. If normal grief as a response to mental illness is not recognized in parents, then many of them are being misunderstood and misaddressed at a core level. Over the past few decades a growing and respected fund of knowledge and research has been accumulated on chronically ill children and the needs of their families. These families face many extraordinary tasks and bear many heavy burdens, not the least of which is their grief. Every parent is unique in his or her grief, and personality differences as well as previous experiences with loss affect the experience of mourning. Guilt is present in any grief experience but is exaggerated for parents by their heightened sense of responsibility for the well-being of a child. In addition, grief changes people, and so in the midst of their depression and despair both parents face adjusting to living with a changed spouse.