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Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
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Michael Jackson's children to face his death
Source: Agencies |
July 6, 2009, Monday
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Online Edition
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ONE thing is certain: Michael Jackson's children now face a universal trauma felt by all kids who suddenly lose a parent, although the public knows little about Michael Jr., 12; Paris, 11; and Prince Michael II, 7.
Jackson has kept his children veiled from prying eyes for long time and whether they are resilient or particularly vulnerable to emotional trauma is unknown.
An attorney for Jackson's cardiologist said the children requested and were allowed to see Jackson's body, after a psychiatrist was consulted, according to media reports today.
"The loss of a parent is a catastrophe" for any young child, and the Jackson kids will need help coping, said Dr. Stuart Goldman, a psychiatrist with Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School.
"The kids need to be removed from the limelight and any exposure to television or media needs to be greatly minimized," said Dr. Louis Kraus, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. "The distortions of what they see there is not going to be healthy."
Specialists said that isn't necessarily traumatizing. It can give children a chance to say goodbye after a parent's sudden death, and allow the permanence of death to sink in, said Demy Kamboukas, a trauma expert and scientist at New York University's Child Study Center.
Kamboukas and other mental health experts recommended counseling for children who've experienced a parent's death. It gives them a chance to talk about their feelings with an objective observer who isn't also grieving and who can assure them that feelings of fear, anger and loss of control are normal, they noted.
Many kids get over profound grief and end up handling a parent's death pretty well, said University of Chicago psychiatrist Dr. Sharon Hirsch.
The Jackson children may be able to, also, she said, "as long as the family rallies around them and helps to continue to love and support them."
Jackson has kept his children veiled from prying eyes for long time and whether they are resilient or particularly vulnerable to emotional trauma is unknown.
An attorney for Jackson's cardiologist said the children requested and were allowed to see Jackson's body, after a psychiatrist was consulted, according to media reports today.
"The loss of a parent is a catastrophe" for any young child, and the Jackson kids will need help coping, said Dr. Stuart Goldman, a psychiatrist with Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School.
"The kids need to be removed from the limelight and any exposure to television or media needs to be greatly minimized," said Dr. Louis Kraus, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. "The distortions of what they see there is not going to be healthy."
Specialists said that isn't necessarily traumatizing. It can give children a chance to say goodbye after a parent's sudden death, and allow the permanence of death to sink in, said Demy Kamboukas, a trauma expert and scientist at New York University's Child Study Center.
Kamboukas and other mental health experts recommended counseling for children who've experienced a parent's death. It gives them a chance to talk about their feelings with an objective observer who isn't also grieving and who can assure them that feelings of fear, anger and loss of control are normal, they noted.
Many kids get over profound grief and end up handling a parent's death pretty well, said University of Chicago psychiatrist Dr. Sharon Hirsch.
The Jackson children may be able to, also, she said, "as long as the family rallies around them and helps to continue to love and support them."
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