“Men grieve differently” – the importance of providing grief counseling to men who have lost children

The loss of a child is a painful and traumatic experience. Both mothers and fathers of deceased children go through grieving processes but usually, they do this differently. Studies have shown that men are socialized to refrain from exhibiting grief related emotions thus it is easy to miss the adverse effects of loss and grief that they experience. Since inception, CHAMPS program has actively provided grief counseling to mostly bereaved mothers who have lost their children. Over time, we have observed that the fathers of the deceased children also require grief support to reduce detrimental outcomes for the fathers including prolonged grief, suicides, and general poor health.