Bereavement in the mentally handicapped.

There has been an upsurge of interest in bereavement and bereavement counselling but our knowledge of how bereavement relates specifically to mentally handicapped people is limited. This article reviews our current understanding of the grieving process, discusses how appropriate these models are for mentally handicapped people, examines how the mentally handicapped may be not receiving the necessary support following bereavement and puts forward suggestions to improve the situation.