For professionals - supporting yourself and your colleagues

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 and 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

For doctors: managing your wellbeing

A recent study by The BMA Covid-19: analysing the impact of coronavirus on doctors revealed that almost 60% of doctors say they are now suffering from some form of anxiety, burnout and depression, with 46% saying their condition has worsened since the start of the pandemic. 67% say that their levels of fatigue and exhaustion are higher than normal as they tackle the second wave and the growing backlog of care, on top of the usual Winter demand.

With funding from BMA Giving we have produced a short guidance film to help doctors maintain their personal resilience and wellbeing while working in the face of loss, death, and grief. The film focuses on the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has on the mental wellbeing of health professionals at a time when many are struggling with anxiety, burnout, depression, and PTSD. It addresses the factors that increase the risk of mental health problems in doctors and the impact of the pandemic, signs of stress and burnout, and individual and organisational strategies to build and maintain resilience.

Early years staff wellbeing: a resource for managers and teams

This downloadable resource from the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families explores why staff wellbeing needs to lie at the heart of nursery settings and identifies four key areas that could make a difference to the wellbeing of nursery and preschool staff. View the resource here.

Visit our page: How we can support you for more on our services.

You can also call our Helpline 0800 02 888 40, email [email protected], or use Live Chat on our website.

Latest

"We did the things that Fraser would have wanted us to do."

Caroline’s son and only child Fraser died aged 18 from a brain tumour in 2022. Caroline remembers a special Christmas photo of Fraser and shares how she and her husband Phil marked Christmas after he died.
Caroline

Caroline was supported by Child Bereavement UK in Glasgow after her son and only child Fraser died, aged 18, from a brain tumour in 2022.
Child Bereavement UK’s animation 'The Invisible Suitcase’ wins at Big Syn International Film Festival

Child Bereavement UK’s animation ‘The Invisible Suitcase’ was the joint winner in the Mental Health Charity film category at the 2023 Big Syn International Film Festival, London.
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Telling a child that someone has died

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.
Supporting bereaved children and young people

Children and young people grieve just as much as adults but they show it in different ways. Find out how you can help them and more about child grieving.
Grieving for a child of any age

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.
Children's understanding of death at different ages

Guidance on children's understanding of death at different ages and stages of development.
When a grandparent dies

The death of a grandparent is often a child or young person’s first encounter with the death of someone important. Parents have a great deal to manage when their own parent or carer dies. There is the grief associated with their own loss, but also the reactions and responses of their children to the death of a grandparent.
Child Bereavement UK training

Child Bereavement UK designs and delivers training for professionals in health and social care, education, the emergency services and the voluntary and corporate sectors, equipping them to provide the best possible care to bereaved families.
Children's understanding of death at different ages

Babies and young children have no understanding of the concept of death yet, long before they are able to talk, babies are likely to react to upset and changes in their environment brought about by the absence of a significant person.
Contact us

Contact details for our Helpline, departments and services.
When your baby dies

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.
UK death & bereavement statistics

A parent of children under 18 dies every 22 minutes in the UK; around 23,600 a year. This equates to around 111 children being bereaved of a parent every day.