A research team led by medical ethicists and physician-researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago has been approved for a $6.2 million award to study strategies to bridge gaps in the healthcare system and help bereaved parents connect with existing community resources after the unexpected or traumatic death of their child.
UChicago Medicine's Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD, MA, and Lurie Children's Kelly Michelson, MD, MPH, will work in collaboration with Kristin James, co-founder of Missing Pieces, a program of The HAP Foundation that partners with Chicagoland organizations to support people after a child dies.
“In partnership with families, coroners, medical examiners and grief experts, we aim to identify evidence-based strategies to ensure families with a sudden and traumatic loss of a child can find the community support they need,” said Lindau, the Catherine Lindsay Dobson Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Professor of Medicine at UChicago.
One strategy will establish two-way, personalized communication between parents and a Missing Pieces Grief Navigator, while the other approach will rely on text messages that provide more general lists of grief and bereavement resources over time. Surveys and one-on-one interviews will give the researchers insight into each strategy’s effect on parents’ well-being and confidence in accessing resources.
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This story was first published by UChicago Medicine.
