The development of an assessment tool for the bereavement needs of people with learning disabilities

Accessible summary • Many people with learning disabilities are not well supported when someone close to them dies. • This can make it an even more difficult time than it needs to be. • This is about how staff can help people with learning disabilities when somebody close to them dies. It has some questions for them to think about. Summary It is well documented that the death of a family member can trigger a need for crisis intervention and cause symptoms of complicated grief for people with learning disabilities (Bonell‐Pascual et al. 1999; Dodd et al. 2005; Emerson 1997; Kloeppel & Hollins 1989;MacHale & Carey 2002) This is in part because of the fact that there are often many hidden losses which company the death of a parent or close relative. When these go unrecognised the original grief is compounded and the person is more likely to have difficulties connected to their grief (Blackman 2003). The bereavement needs assessment tool (BNAT) has been developed to help professionals supporting a bereaved person with learning disabilities to make a comprehensive assessment at the point of bereavement (or even pre‐bereavement) in order that concurrent losses are discovered and plans can be put into place as to how to attend to these. An assessment tool has been developed based on experience collected over a number of years of having supported grieving people with mild to moderate learning disabilities. A mixture of learning disability professionals (two psychologists and four learning disability nurses) working in three community teams have tried out the assessment tool and their comments will be used to further refine this tool. The aim of the assessment tool is to clarify the specific bereavement needs of an individual, enabling these to be met. The assessment tool consists of 10 main questions with sub questions. There is a focus on three areas of support: Practical issues – e.g. has this person’s ability to communicate with others been affected by this loss? Social issues – e.g. what impact has this death had on the person’s familial network? Emotional issues – e.g. does this person recognise their emotions and can they express them?