Five girls in search of a group: a group experience for adolescents of parents with AIDS.

This paper depicts a pilot school-based bereavement group initiated by four junior-high-school girls who experienced crying spells and suicidal ideation following a classroom discussion on AIDS. It emerged that each of these youths had recently lost (or was in the process of losing) a close family member to the disease. Several key concepts of grief work with children are briefly reviewed and the implementation of this group in a public junior high school in the Bronx is described. Examples of group process are provided highlighting phases of group development and themes of the group. Suggestions for future work in this area are provided.