The National Archive of Grief Support Studies
The National Archive of Grief Support Studies(NAGSS) database provides bibliographical information and summaries of recent articles selected for their relevance to grief and bereavement service providers. The articles that are summarized are selected from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals and are intended to highlight key concepts as well as provide a brief statement of implications for service providers. Bibliographical information may be used to obtain the original article.
Homicide Bereavement Counseling: A Survey of Providers
Authors:
Hatton, Rebecca
Source:
Death Studies: 2003. Volume 27, pp. 427-448.
Summary
The article summarizes the results of an opinion survey from 116 homicide bereavement caregivers, 45% of whom are homicide survivors themselves. The goals of the study were to obtain information regarding current practices in homicide bereavement counseling and identify the conceptual frameworks guiding interventions. The researchers also sought to identify differences in the intervention approaches of professional, paraprofessional, and self-help caregivers. Survey results revealed that the most highly recommended interventions were victim advocacy, crisis intervention, grief counseling, and family therapy. Self-help was more strongly endorsed by survivor caregivers than non-survivor caregivers. Clinical interventions were moderately recommended. Medication use, grief work with trauma suppression, promoting forgiveness, and extreme exposure techniques were not recommended or deemed harmful for homicide survivors. Both the homicide survivor caregivers and non-survivor caregivers identified severe emotional pain, a constant search for reasons why, and rage and anger regarding the murder, as the primary presenting problems. Both groups named severe mental illness as the strongest reason for treatment failure, followed by negative experiences with the justice system, and lack of social support.
Key words: homicide, stigma, survive, trauma, treatment
Service Provider Implications
This article offers service providers a variety of recommended intervention practices for homicide survivors. The authors recommend grief counseling and family therapy, but warn against retraumatization that might result from the use of extreme emotion-focused techniques.
