Acknowledging Loss: A Consultative Approach to Grief Support for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

ABSTRACT

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are at an elevated risk for exposure to bereavement, persistent negative mental health effects after loss, and layered and traumatic forms of grief. Despite this increased risk, students with IDD are too-frequently overlooked by school-based mental health professionals, leaving educators, community members, and family members without needed support. There are actionable steps that school-based mental health providers can take to adapt existing approaches to grief support and build consultee capacity to intervene with individuals with IDD. This paper reviews terminology surrounding the concept of grief, summarizes biases about IDD that have contributed to care disparities, and offers considerations for including grieving students with IDD in mental health consultation .

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laurel A. Snider

Laurel A. Snider, PhD, is an assistant professor of school psychology at The University of Alabama. Her research centers on leveraging collaborative relationships to improve psychosocial outcomes for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Kayla McCreadie

Kayla McCreadie, MA, is a school psychology doctoral student at the University of Denver. Her research interests include intervention service delivery for students with intellectual disabilities and empathetic graduate training of future school psychologists.

Devadrita Talapatra

Devadrita Talapatra, PhD, is an associate professor of school psychology at the University of Denver. Her research interests include educational and social disparities affecting youth with intellectual disabilities and school psychology frameworks that support equitable graduate training practices.

Leandra Parris

Leandra Parris, PhD, is an Associate professor in the School Psychology Program at William & Mary. Her primary areas of interest include social media influences on youth well-being, prevention and intervention for addressing traumatic stress among marginalized populations, and coping with peer aggression.