Assessing and Treating Childhood Traumatic Loss

This article provides an overview of existing evidence-based assessment tools and interventions for bereaved youth. We begin by reviewing primary assessment tools that have been validated for bereaved children, including those designed to measure grief, posttraumatic stress, depression, and suicide risk. We then describe current evidence-based interventions including Multidimensional Grief Therapy, Grief-Help, Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Traumatic Grief, The Family Bereavement Program, Trauma and Grief Component Therapy, and Grief and Trauma Intervention. We highlight common practice elements and conclude by providing future research directions that can help clinicians to more effectively address the mental health needs of traumatically bereaved youth.