Help for professionals working with grieving children and young people

If you’re a professional working with a grieving child or young person, we’re here to help.

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How can Winston’s Wish help professionals supporting grieving children and young people?

Caring for a bereaved child can be complex. What should you say? How should you act? Is there something specific you should be doing or not doing? How do you know if a child is coping?

Whilst we can’t take away a young person’s loss, we can help you to help them to thrive again.

As well as providing direct bereavement information and support to young people, Winston’s Wish helps health and social care workers and other professionals, in fact… any adult that is caring for a bereaved young person, to provide the best support possible. If you work in a school we have dedicated resources just for you – visit our support for schools page.

Whether it’s helping you having your first conversations with children about death, activities to help young people express their feelings or simply understanding how children, teenagers and young adults grieve differently depending on their age, their circumstances and their type of bereavement.

We’re here to help you support the children and young people in your care, whether it be in anticipation of a death (pre-bereavement), in the immediate days following a bereavement or even months or years down the line.

Please note that any young person up to the age of 25 who has experienced the death of someone important to them can reach out directly to Winston’s Wish through our on-demand services.

They can email, chat with us online, text or call our helpline. Those aged 13 or over can also refer themselves for further bereavement support services.

We encourage you to encourage bereaved children and young people to reach out to us directly themselves, so they can own and start their grief support journey on their own terms.

All of our services are online to ensure as many people as possible have access to bereavement advice and support, no matter where they live.

We have information available in languages other than English and if you click the circle icon with a stick man at the bottom left of your screen you can use our accessibility toolbar to change the language, font, colours, size etc of the website.

Information about grief

Knowing what grief is and understanding what the common responses to a death are, can be the first steps in helping a child or young person make sense of what they’re going through.

We produce a range of content including videos, blogs, books, talks and workshops that help young people explore their grief. For content aimed directly at young people aged 13 plus, please visit our support for young people page.

You can access a range of content on topics such as ‘how to tell a child someone has died’, ‘coping with birthdays, anniversaries and special days’ and ‘managing separation anxiety’ and lots more on our website.

There’s also a huge variety of activities, reading lists and our own extensive publications and resources which you can explore to help the child or young person you are supporting.

We also offer in-depth child bereavement training and bespoke training which can be tailored to your organisation’s needs.

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Information and advice

Advice and resources to support grieving children and young people, including on bereavement by suicide, homicide and serious illness and for children with SEND.

VIEW ADVICE

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Training

We offer a variety of training on childhood bereavement for professionals including free online modules, in-depth day courses and bespoke training for organisations.

VIEW TRAINING

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Publications and resources

Specialist books written by Winston’s Wish to help you support grieving children and young people, plus memory boxes to store treasured items and free activities to download.

VIEW RESOURCES

On-demand grief support

If you need some guidance on what to say to a child or are unsure how to approach a bereaved young person, you can reach out to a member of our team.

Whatever your concern, we’ll listen and offer guidance on your next steps. Nothing is off limits, we’ll listen without judgement and you can even chat to us anonymously if you’d prefer to do so.

Whether it’s a one-off or a conversation you need to come back to multiple times over, you can reach us on the different ways listed below. You can also encourage a child or young person to use any of our on-demand services if they want to talk to someone about their grief.

If you need to speak to us in a language other than English, we can use interpreters over the phone, and we can use the Relay UK app if you have hearing or speech difficulties.

Call

Call us for free on 08088 020 021 between 8am-8pm, weekdays.

Email

Email us on ask@winstonswish.org or fill out our contact form and we’ll reply within two working days.

Live chat

Chat online between 8am-8pm, weekdays by clicking the blue ‘Chat with us’ button at the bottom right of your screen.

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Text

For out of hours mental health support, text WW to 85258 to speak with someone from our trusted partner, Shout. For urgent support in a crisis, please call 999.

Grief support for children and young people

If you feel like the young bereaved person in your care is in need of additional grief support, a series of one-to-one sessions with a Winston’s Wish Bereavement Support Worker could help. Together, they will openly and safely explore the young person’s feelings and discover the coping mechanisms that will work for them moving forward.

We also recognise that connecting young people with one another has the power to transform a young person’s perspective on grief. Our grief support groups offer young people the opportunity to meet others in similar circumstances, share experiences, reduce feelings of isolation and build connections.

In some cases, and at the discretion of Winston’s Wish, group sessions with family members can be arranged to help you all move forward together.

Please note that one-to-one and group support is accessed by referral only. Young people aged 13 or over are encouraged to complete their own referral if appropriate, please feel free to help them with this. If you are submitting a referral on behalf of a young person, someone from Winston’s Wish will assess the child or young person’s individual circumstances to ensure they receive the right service for them. If it’s decided this isn’t the right service for them, a member of our team will guide you towards the most appropriate support.

MAKE A REFERRAL

Bereavement counselling for children and young people

For most bereaved children and young people, the support and comfort they find through our content and on-demand services is enough. However, for those who have experienced severe, traumatic and/or multiple bereavements, or if a young person has complex personal circumstances, it may be that they need more focused and dedicated support.

Bereavement counselling may help. If it’s found that a child or young person could benefit from counselling, they will be matched with an appropriate counsellor who will help them to safely explore their feelings and experiences.

Please note that bereavement counselling is accessed by referral only. Young people aged 13 or over are encouraged to complete their own referral if appropriate, please feel free to help them with this. If you are submitting a referral on behalf of a young person, someone from Winston’s Wish will assess the child or young person’s individual circumstances to ensure they receive the right service for them. If it’s decided this isn’t the right service for them, a member of our team will guide you towards the most appropriate support.

MAKE A REFERRAL