Parents of fatally injured children discuss taking part in prevention campaigns: an exploratory study

Acts of resistance: breaking the silence of grief following traffic crash fatalities

Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence demonstrate the limited utility of a narrow construction of "normal" grief. Sudden and violent death, the young age of the deceased, and perceptions of death preventability are associated with grief reactions that extend beyond an expected grief response. Interviews were conducted with 21 adults bereaved through the death of a family member in a traffic crash. We present their attempts to resist notions of "working through" grief and "recovery" from it and consider how the participants' constructions of an alternative discourse, or normative narrative, possess the potential to challenge a prevailing grief discourse.

Would society pay more attention to injuries if the injury control community paid more attention to risk communication science?

“If a disease were killing our children at the rate unintentional injuries are, the public would be outraged and demand that this killer be stopped.” Former US Surgeon General, C Everett Koop

Advice from bereaved parents: on forming partnerships for injury prevention

We set out to learn whether, and how, parents of children who were fatally injured want to collaborate with injury prevention professionals. In this exploratory study, interviews were conducted with parents who had been identified through medical examiner files. Only a small minority of those we contacted chose to participate. The six mothers and five fathers who did felt that survivors should be offered such opportunities. They suggested waiting, however, at least a year before approaching parents. Our interviewees endorsed medical examiner's offices, health care providers, and police as legitimate avenues for identifying potential partners. They suggested that contact should first be made by mail. Professionals were encouraged to be sensitive, responsive, and realistic regarding the limits of our science. From a practical perspective, safety experts' contacts and political savvy appealed to respondents. Parents also expressed the need for coaching, and gentle understanding of the pain they live with every day.