Helping people with learning disabilities make sense of death
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Helping people with learning disabilities make sense of death

Daniel Allen Health journalist

Nurses can offer valuable support through the grieving process

We all react differently to bereavement and that is as true for people with learning disabilities as for anyone else. Yet assumptions are often made. As a result, when a person with a learning disability loses someone close, the reality of death may be denied. Grieving may then stall or never begin. In a briefing based on the work of Keele University professor of learning disability nursing Sue Read, the bereavement charity Sudden refers to this as ‘disenfranchised grief’. This occurs when someone’s loss is not recognised and they are left unsupported.

Learning Disability Practice. 24, 5, 6-8. doi: 10.7748/ldp.24.5.6.s2

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