Bereavement support

We provide emotional support to families of babies, children and young people accessing Acorns services, from diagnosis through to end of life and following the death of a child.

An assessment of each family’s needs is undertaken by a Family Practitioner, who is fully qualified with a background in nursing and/or social care. They will then offer and provide pre and post-bereavement support to meet emotional and practical needs of families as part of a multi-disciplinary team.

Each family has access to a Family Practitioner to provide psychosocial, emotional and practical support.

Siblings are supported through a specialist sibling service which may take the form of group support, time-limited individual support or a bespoke residential programme.

At end of life, the family will be supported by the whole hospice team. This includes:

• Advance care planning to prepare for how to deal with the actual reality of bereavement, helping give families choice and control around the end of life of their child
• One to one or family home visits
• School visits providing sibling bereavement support and advice and support for teachers
• An out of hours service is also available 24 hours a day
• Support via group work and workshops
• Practical advice and support with funeral arrangements, registering a child’s death, liaising with other agencies and ensuring other family members are informed
• Access to the special bedroom after the death of a child
• Encouraging and facilitating memory capturing – this may include photography, building memory boxes or books
• Inviting and supporting families at memorial events
• Access to the hospice memorial garden

Practical support offered to families by the Family team after a child has died includes:

• Welfare rights advice. For example, supporting applications to the Social Fund, help with funeral expenses, notifying benefit agencies of changes in family circumstances
• Enabling families to have choices in caring for their child’s body before burial or cremation. For example, at the hospice, at home or at a funeral home
• Understanding the types of funeral available. For example, cremation, non-religious burial, woodland burial or burial or cremation abroad
• Support in notifying professionals, family and friends
• Support in liaising with employers to negotiate time off work, support and arrangements for return to work
• Ensuring that brothers and sisters and other extended family members are being supported and have necessary access to specific support groups where necessary

You might also be interested in …

Acorns Tribute Funds

Gardens

In memory

End of life care