{"id":3982,"date":"2016-08-17T14:33:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T18:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/52.229.122.34\/en\/?p=3982"},"modified":"2021-02-17T11:08:25","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T16:08:25","slug":"new-book-helps-families-explain-death-to-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/uncategorized\/new-book-helps-families-explain-death-to-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"New book helps families explain death to kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Kate Kelly wrote and illustrated a book to help explain death and dying to young children.<\/em><\/p>\n

How do you talk to children about death? It\u2019s a difficult subject, so it can be tempting to avoid it or to gloss it over to protect young minds.<\/p>\n

To help families have this hard conversation, head and neck surgeon Dr. Kate Kelly, who trained at The Ottawa Hospital, tackled it head on. Her children\u2019s book The Big D: Explaining death and dying to young children<\/em>, follows a child as he learns about his grandfather\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The book is designed as a tool for adults to explain a death in the family to a child. It uses simple, direct words and images so that it\u2019s easy to understand for kids of any age.<\/p>\n

Kids often understand more than we give them credit for, said Dr. Kelly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to change our approach to talking about death. Even adults don\u2019t always have the words to talk about death, so it\u2019s hard for us to address it directly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so important for little kids to be included in the process of grief and to address death directly, because they are easily confused by our reactions, don\u2019t understand our indirect language, and are scared by the unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"bigdbookphoto2-en\"<\/p>\n

As a medical student at Dalhousie University, Dr. Kelly worked with oncology nurse Joan Hamilton, who helped patients navigate the cancer journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe told me that the one thing she wished she had was a book to explain death and dying to young kids in a straightforward, understandable but sensitive way. I\u2019ve always had an interest in writing and illustration, so I offered to help,\u201d said Dr. Kelly, who completed the book during her residency at TOH.<\/p>\n

Hamilton has already used the book with several of her patients and their families and has received excellent feedback.<\/p>\n

The book was so well received by Burnstown Publishers that Dr. Kelly has been asked to expand it into a series of children\u2019s books about tough subjects called \u201cThe Elephant in the Room\u201d books.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really grown into something special,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a great platform we can use to help families who need support.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information or to order a copy, contact Dr. Kelly at elephantintheroombooks@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"bigdbookphoto3-en\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Kate Kelly wrote and illustrated a book to help explain death and dying to young children. How do you talk to children about death? It\u2019s a difficult subject, so it can be tempting to avoid it or to gloss it over to protect young minds. To help families have this hard conversation, head and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":3983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}