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The COVID-19 pandemic devastated public welfare worldwide, bringing excess deaths and moving bereavement to the front page. Before the pandemic, Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model (CBEM) prevalence rates reflected an annual average of more than 260,000 children under 18 becoming newly bereaved due to a parent’s death. In 2021, this number increased to more than 383,000 – surging nearly 50%. While COVID-19 directly accounts for a portion of the increase, other socially stigmatized causes also contributed, including overdose and homicide. For example, accidental drug overdose deaths have risen for the past two decades, yet overdose deaths spiked more than 31% in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. This trend continued in 2021 when the age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths increased by 14% compared to 2020. As a result, 20% of the children who experienced their parent’s death in 2020 and 2021, grieved an overdose death. This year’s CBEM Key Topic Report explores parent deaths due to COVID-19, overdose, homicide by gunfire, and suicide—causes that may lead to feelings of isolation, guilt, and uncertainty in grieving families—highlighting the ongoing impact of the pandemic in 2021. This webinar will review these findings and suggest how childhood bereavement professionals can use the results to promote awareness and advance advocacy.

Target Audience: Counselors, social workers, bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Intermediate – This best describes a topic or issue that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Please note: CEs are not available for this webinar.

Cost: Free for all

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Report the increase in childhood bereavement prevalence due to parent death in the first two years of the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic averages.
• Distinguish the different types of CBEM results, Projected, Current, and Snapshot.
• Discuss annual changes in childhood bereavement prevalence rates due to parent death related to overdose, homicide by gunshot, suicide, and COVID-19.
• Understand how to find and interpret the 2023 CBEM Key Topic Report to promote awareness and advance advocacy for the childhood bereavement field.

Speaker Bios:

Laura Landry, PhD, is the Director of Evaluation and Research at Judi’s House/JAG Institute. She has 16 years of experience evaluating community-based programs and large-scale prevention initiatives and building organizations’ capacity to utilize data to drive decisions. In addition to heading the organization’s Childhood Bereavement Changemaker Initiative, Laura oversees the Evaluation and Research Department. Her work focuses on evaluating Judi’s House services, building evaluation/data utilization capacity in the field, and disseminating the prevalence of childhood bereavement to inform advocates and practitioners working in the field.

Michaeleen (Micki) Burns, PhD, is the Chief Clinical Officer at Judi’s House/JAG Institute and adjunct faculty at the University of Colorado. JH/JAG is a comprehensive family bereavement center in Denver. A Licensed Psychologist with more than two decades of experience providing therapeutic assessment and support to families facing adversity, Micki has witnessed the lasting impact of unaddressed grief. She is dedicated to ensuring appropriate care is available for all and raising childhood bereavement to a level of critical public importance. At JH/JAG she oversees the direct service, research, and training departments working towards a vision where no child is alone in grief.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.

To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.