When Families Grieve with Katie Couric and Elmo

For a child, the death of a parent is the greatest loss the child can experience. It is estimate that 2.5% of children under the age of 18 have experienced the death of a parent, which is almost 2.5 million children in the United States. Additionally, according to TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) the 5,398 U.S. military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan have left nearly 4,000 (3,779) children without a parent.

Following the airing of When Families Grieve, Sesame Workshop will begin distributing nearly one million free multimedia kits to families and grief service providers across the country. The bilingual resources were developed to help families with young children in coping with a death in the family.

You can watch many of the moving excerpts from When Families Grieve in the collection of video clips on this page. The When Families Grieve Tool kits are available on their website.

The Mental Health Association, notes that helping a child cope with loss is perhaps one of the most important roles an adult can play. In effect, you are helping that child develop skills that can last a lifetime.

Knowing how to help a child cope with death and loss can be challenging for parents, grandparents and teachers. A parent grieving a loss is not only dealing with his or her own loss, but must also find some way to help their child cope.

Books and resources like When Families Grief can be very helpful tools for parents to use. They can help focus on three areas that are very important when coping with children.

• Reducing the levels of anxiety, sadness and confusion that children may feel following a loss.
  
• Reassuring children that they are safe and loved.
  
• Using age-appropriate resources for talking about death to a young child.

The sponsors of the When Families Grieve program have developed their resource kits to ensure that all of these area are met.