The Inquiry has published a report by the psychosocial expert group on the impacts on children who were bereaved due to their parent(s) having been treated with infected blood products or blood.
In preparing the report the expert group reviewed the current literature and witness statements. The report sets out the psychosocial impacts on children including the impacts of stigma, of their parent’s terminal illness being hidden, the impacts of age when bereaved and gender, and impacts on education, employment and mental health.
The report highlights a lack of information from healthcare professionals to families, lack of adequate palliative care before and after the bereavement, and an almost total lack of social, financial or psychological support.
In their conclusion, the experts state that the death of their parents has “significantly devastated a generation of children they left behind”.
The report can be read here.