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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on August 31, 2007
British Journal of Social Work 2008 38(8):1499-1517; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcm055
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

That’s Not My Child Anymore! Parental Grief after Acquired Brain Injury (ABI): Incidence, Nature and Longevity*

Catherine Collings

Catherine Collings has recently completed a Bachelor of Social Work degree with First Class Honours from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, winning the 2006 Peter Boss Honours Prize as best performed student in the Honours program. Also in 2006, she presented a research paper based on her Honours research findings at the 5th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health, Hong Kong, which was awarded an Outstanding Study/Project Award (Student Category). She has had clinical experience in the areas of Acquired Brain Injury (Queensland Health Department); Mental Health (Queensland Health Department); and Australia’s Social Security system, Centrelink.

Correspondence to Catherine Collings, B.SW (Hons), 16 Booner Street, Lota, Qld 4179, Australia. E-mail: thecollings{at}optusnet.com.au


  Abstract

It is estimated that 12,900 of the 39,200 Australians who sustain an acquired brain injury (ABI) each year live on with severe or profound permanent disability (BIAQ, 2006a). This project explores parental grief in response to the loss of normative lifespan development associated with ABI sustained in late adolescence or adulthood. While many people with ABI lack insight regarding the impact of their brain injury, for their parents, there is often an acute awareness of the loss which has occurred: the loss of a ‘normal’ future, and the loss of all the hopes and dreams associated with such ‘normal’ development. Moreover, it has been argued that this loss is ongoing: it is nonfinite, with parents having to make adjustments as the full impact of their child’s injury is realized across the lifespan. Available literature predicts parental grief as a response to this kind of loss, but there is a lack of empirical evidence about the incidence, nature or longevity of grief among this population due to the research focus on care-giver burden and stress rather than family grief. This paper discusses the experiences of parental grief and resilience as reported by a non-random sample of affected families, and the implications for social work practice.

Keywords: acquired brain injury, nonfinite loss, parental grief


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