Abstract

REBELO, José Eduardo. Importância da entreajuda no apoio a pais em luto. Aná. Psicológica [online]. 2005, vol.23, n.4, pp.373-380. ISSN 0870-8231.

Starting from the accompaniment of a self-helping group for bereavement parents, we intended to encourage the participants through a social support to the individual evolution of grief. Between January 2002 and January 2003 several bereavement parents were observed in monthly meetings of two hours. The discussion was centred in themes about the grieving phases, moderated by two parents with very experienced grief. The meetings occurred in Aveiro. The data collected included the history of life and the texts from observation. Twenty-one parents participated in the group, varying between eight and fourteen in the different meetings, mostly women, with an average age of 52,5 years old. The ages of the lost children varied between 1 and 35 years old, and the cause of death was mostly the accident in road. The parents with recent grief, less than one year, found in the support group an adequate social help. The parents with long grief, more than one year, showed contradictory feelings towards the support group, abandoning or remaining in it. The parents that used anti-depressive medication since the beginning or in the grieving course showed evidences of conflict in the development of the healthy grief with tendency for pathological deviations.

Keywords : Grief; bereavement parents; support group.

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