The United States recently reached a total of 600,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and nearly 4 million people have died worldwide.
The devastation of the last year has been difficult for everyone, even more so for those who lost a loved one, and for kids most of all.
Vicki Jay, CEO of the National Alliance for Grieving Children, told KCBS Radio's Holly Quan and Jeff Bell it’s been a hard year for children.
"We have about 46,000 kids, that we know of, across the United States who have suffered the death of a parent or a sibling through COVID-19," said Jay. "We work really hard to try to identify the kids and get services to the kids."
The first step, Jay said, is to is recognize that kids do indeed grieve and to be supportive through their grief.
It’s simple to assess whether a child is grieving or not, according to Jay, look to see, "if they are different from what they were before," she said.
Signs to watch for are if the child was quiet, shy and reserved, and all of a sudden they’re acting out, or the opposite, said Jay. Trouble sleeping, concentrating, are other signs that might indicate a child is grieving.
Going virtual has made some things more difficult, but it’s access to care easier. Jay’s organization runs various support groups and made the transition to Zoom fairly smoothly.
But it’s the peer connections that are truly important, said Jay. "Kids have done a very good job of supporting each other through this," she said.
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