Drug Death-Bereaved Parents’ Perspectives on Family Interactions and Help Needs: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Family relations are essential for the bereaved in terms of healing and adjusting to life, especially after experiencing a traumatic death. Although 500 000 people die in drug-related deaths each year, few works focus on family interactions and the help needs of those bereaved by such losses. In this qualitative study, we interviewed 14 parents who had lost their child through a drug-related death. Through a reflexive thematic analysis, we generated three themes: (I) considerable needs in the family become our responsibility, capturing how parents try to mend the disrupted family system and provide adequate care for those who struggle after death, (II) conversations that are important for family connections are obstructed, encompassing how family members sometimes seem afraid of grief emotions and try to protect each other by not talking, and (III) as parents, we can strengthen family connections, encapsulating how parents create space to talk and listen to each other in the family and navigate relational challenges in maintaining relationships. The findings are discussed through the Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement as well as family resilience theory. Based on the results, we propose that professional family-oriented help efforts for drug death-bereaved families in two main domains should be considered. The first includes those related to the family’s need and ability to adapt roles and relationships to the new reality, and the second involves those connected to creating a space and environment for emotional sharing and joint meaning-making processes in the family.