Looking after yourself

Enhancing knowledge and skills

Many professionals are concerned that they have not had sufficient or appropriate training to offer grieving families the support they need. Professional carers need a clear understanding of the importance of setting boundaries in their caring relationships, both for themselves and for others.

Thankfully the death of a baby or a child in the UK is relatively rare, but this means it is often completely unexpected and can leave the family and staff caring for them shocked and distressed. Staff need to feel confident in their ability to provide the best care they can to the bereaved family. Good training that enables participants to reflect and learn from their own and others experiences, access accurate information and support those around them is vital.

- Caroline Basak, former Midwifery & Women’s Health Adviser to The Royal College of Nursing

Sharing feelings and experiences

It is important that the professionals involved with a bereaved family work as a team and are able to offer each other support and understanding. The need for support is not a sign of professional inadequacy or personal weakness, but rather a sign of maturity, recognising that you need help to do this work well. Most professional carers are very good at caring for others, but far less good at caring for themselves or for each other.

Tea pots need to be refilled if they are to carry on pouring cups of tea. Professionals and volunteers need to be cared for and supported if they are to carry on caring and offering support. Most people know this, but few actually do anything about it. Child Bereavement UK address this crucial aspect of bereavement care through its resources, courses, and helpline.

– David Trickey, Consultant Chartered Clinical Psychologist

All carers can benefit from sharing their own feelings and discussing experiences about particular situations with which they have been involved. They also benefit from hearing and learning about other people’s experiences. If you know that one of your colleagues is involved in some stressful work, try to find the time to listen to them and how they feel afterwards. It can make an enormous difference to have a colleague that cares about you. This is no less important if you are a consultant or a manager.

If you realise that you are not the only person affected by the difficulty of knowing what to say to a grieving family, you feel less alone and more able to care.

– Abla Trebble, Nurse and Health Visitor

Latest

Bereavement Awareness for Further Education and University Staff: : Post-webinar resources
Bereavement Awareness for staff working with children with SEND: Post-webinar resources
Bereavement Awareness for School Staff: Post-webinar resources

Our aim is to empower you to feel confident to be able to offer pupils the support they may need and to develop a bereavement-aware culture within your settings, acknowledging the enduring nature of loss and helping pupils to manage their grief and develop resilience for the future.
Bereavement Awareness for Nurseries and Early Years: Post-webinar resources

Our aim is to empower you to feel confident to be able to offer pupils the support they may need and to develop a bereavement-aware culture within your settings, acknowledging the enduring nature of loss and helping pupils to manage their grief and develop resilience for the future.

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Children and young people grieve just as much as adults but they show it in different ways. They copy the responses of the adults around them, and rely on adults to provide them with the support.
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It is important to tell a child of any age when someone important in their lives has died, and ideally this is done by someone who is closest to them.
Bereavement Awareness training for schools and Early Years settings

Bereavement awareness training webinars for education providers, designed for and by those working in the education sector. The webinars provide an introduction to supporting a bereaved pupil in nursery; primary; and secondary settings.
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This comprehensive, free-to-access resource , Supporting a bereaved pupil has been developed by Child Bereavement UK in collaboration with the London Grid for Learning.
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We are recognised as the leading provider of training for professionals working with bereaved families.
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When a baby lives only a short time or dies before birth due to miscarriage, stillbirth or a painful decision to end the pregnancy, people may assume that the loss is not important. This is simply not the case.
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The agony of losing a child of any age is unparalleled. There is no age or point in time that makes it any easier. No parent expects to face the death of their child and no grandparent expects to lose their grandchild.