James Donaldson on Mental Health - Kids who lose a parent to homicide, suicide or drug overdose are more likely to die as children

Childhood deaths are significantly higher among children who lose a parent to drug overdose, homicide or suicide compared to the general child population, a new University of Michigan study found.

The research, published in JAMA Network Open, investigated the link between specific types of parental loss and the subsequent risk of mortality for children in Michigan, said study lead author Sean Esteban McCabe , professor at the U-M School of Nursing.

The study found that bereaved children who experienced a parental death from one of the three preventable causes accounted for 150 excess childhood deaths in the state over the 14-year study period.

“There are early preventive interventions and childhood bereavement services that have been shown to improve children’s health following the death of a parent that need to be made more widely available so no Michigan child grieves alone,” McCabe said.

“Protecting vulnerable children with proven ways of helping must be a priority for all of us to save more lives because there is no greater failure as a community or state than failing to protect our children.” U.S.

parental mortality has reached historic highs in recent years, increasingly associated with these three leading preventable causes of death.

Previous research has shown that Michigan has higher parental mortality rates than the national average, said McCabe, who’s also the director of the U-M Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health .

The U-M team wanted a more complete picture of how these kinds of parental deaths impacted childhood mortality, to help evaluate the need for preventive interventions for bereaved children.

It’s believed to be the first study of its kind.

Key findings: Children bereaved by parental drug overdose face a mortality rate by age 17 or younger that was 700% higher than the average Michigan child.