The development of a framework to support bereaved children and young people: the Irish Childhood Bereavement Care Pyramid

Abstract

Children's bereavement poses a challenge not only for children themselves but for the families, communities, volunteers and professionals who support them. The Irish Childhood Bereavement Network set out to develop a framework to provide a comprehensive guide for children's bereavement support. The model is based on contemporary literature, existing policy and the views of professions, volunteers and parents. The process resulted in the 'Irish Childhood Bereavement Care Pyramid'. The major pillars of children's needs, support/service responses and staff competencies are described at four levels, basic up to complex.The aim of the Pyramid is to guide adults to ensure that children are provided with the information and reassurance they need around a bereavement, to promote early intervention as appropriate and to recognise those few children who need specialist support to learn to live with their bereavement. Family context and the child's changing developmental status are emphasized as core considerations.

The prevalence of childhood bereavement in Scotland and its relationship with disadvantage: the significance of a public health approach to death, dying and bereavement

“…This identifies the relevance of low-level interventions which focus on normalizing bereavement and grief with children and further supports the need for a tiered approach to bereavement. 38 Such intervention may require developing and supporting the capacity of families, peers and community networks to facilitate such an approach, what Breen and colleagues 9 view as supporting the resilience of communities. However, the findings also indicate that children who live in families that may already be at a disadvantage (by income, tenure or health status) are at increased risk of experiencing the death of a parent or sibling.…”

“…Accordingly, there is a variety of literature and practice guidance that recognizes the significance of children being able to access informal support from within their existing communities, if and where possible, and specialist support when, and if, needed. 18 , 20 , 38 Although this literature refers to the significance of a universal approach to bereavement, it does not specifically identify the relevance of public health, rather this is implicit within the different models offered. Furthermore, research focuses predominately on acute models of therapeutic intervention 18 and as such the experiences of children who are known to professional services: less is known about the experiences of children who do not receive professional support and this presents an important gap in theoretical and practice knowledge.…”

Grief, Tragic Death, and Multiple Loss in the Lives of Irish Traveller Community Health Workers

“…This desire to protect and spare children (or other family members) from the pain of a death is a common one but, according to Therese Rando (1991), it is not a realistic aim and can interfere with the natural course of grief. The Irish Childhood Bereavement Care Pyramid (Jones, Deane, & Keegan, 2015) recommends that children are provided with honest and accurate information about a bereavement, in conjunction with support and reassurance in the family, community, and school, and that formal bereavement support services (such as peer support groups) should be available for children with more complex bereavement needs. UK-based practitioner Carol Rogers has published a book (Rogers, 2014) based on workshops specifically aimed at helping children from the Irish Traveller community to express and process grief.…”

Des ressources en ligne pour les jeunes en deuil : un projet innovant

“…La liste de musique proposée sur ce site (Cancer really sucks, 2016) vient conforter nos résultats qui privilégient la musique comme ressource face à la souffrance conformément à l'étude de Kammin et Tilley (2013) (pensent-ils que c'est un dérivatif ?). Les résultats sont plus mesurés dans notre étude concernant l'intérêt de la littérature contemporaine comme moyen de soutenir les enfants en deuil (Jones, Deane et Keegan, 2015).…”