Meet the team
Sinead Hannan
Ronan McBride
Also:
- Laura Creaney
- Michelle Mooney
- Elaine McCahey
- James Fallis
- Maria Lennon
- Blinne McGee
- Bernadette Molloy
- Nuala Boyle
- Margaret Bunting
What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to the theme of 'How can we improve across system boundaries?
Bereavement experiences are part of life and will shape the physical, emotional & social well-being of young lives.
1 in 29, 5-16 year olds are bereaved of a parent/sibling – that’s 1 child in every classroom.
A parent of a child <18 years dies every 22 minutes. (Child Bereavement UK)
90% of children have experienced bereavement of a close relative, friend or pet.
International estimates are up to 80% of youth in need of psychological services never access services (Schleider, 2022).
Currently there is no record of the number of bereaved children in Northern Ireland. Some children do not show outer signs of distress; some have multiple bereavements, resulting in an accumulation of impact from each bereavement experience. Children are reliant on adults to guide them to supports. Professionals often discover a child has experienced a bereavement when the child/family are identified as struggling or hit crisis level.
What does your project aim to achieve?
A growing body of research supports single session interventions (SSI) in enhancing wellbeing. By supporting children at an early stage we could prevent more complex needs developing through childhood or adulthood.
Our project will support children through a collaborative approach; bringing together key systems around the child – healthcare, education and voluntary/community sector by:
1. Co-facilitating children’s workshops to support varying needs when faced with a bereavement to enhance coping skills and adjustment; inclusive of culture, spiritual and religious beliefs.
2. Providing timely information, resources and signposting based on individual circumstances and readiness.
3. “Warm introduction” – providing an opportunity to connect and build trust; develop partnerships between services and schools, introduce children to people from services, connect through peer support and identify children in need of further supports.
4. Empowering children to have active roles in their grief journey.
5. Enhancing staff knowledge and competence – capacity building across systems.
How will the project be delivered?
We piloted an adaptation of the Tree of Life narrative workshop in a post primary school in Northern Ireland for Children Grief Awareness Week. The workshop was co-delivered by Psychology, Bereavement, Nursing and Cruse Bereavement Care with support from Education. Based on positive feedback from children and staff we propose rolling out the workshop to schools within the Southern Trust area as a single-session intervention.
The funding will be used for:
· A co-ordinator to train staff across systems and co-deliver the workshop with trained staff from key systems in schools.
· Purchase resources for running the workshops.
Under the guidance of a steering group, including service users; QI methodology will be embedded for continuous improvement. Baseline data is being gathered. Data will be collected through PDSA cycles, pre and post time sampling, reviewed every three months for sustainability and share and spread across other services.
How is your project going to share learning?
Project milestones, successes and learning will be shared through the Q Community i.e. Social Media posts.
We will also promote the project through regional and local QI forums including the Northern Ireland Regional HSCQI Website and Southern Trust QI annual events.
We will also take opportunities to share findings through professionals’ forums;
– Community Nursing Governance Forum.
– Paediatrics Department Meeting.
– Paediatric Psychology Network webinars.
– European Paediatric Psychology Conference.
– We will also submit findings for publication in BMJ Open Quality.
Training can be made accessible to other services and to all Q Community members.
How you can contribute
- Has anyone implemented any similar projects and willing to share their learning, experiences and pitfalls to avoid?
- What alternative measures might members suggest?
- Any suggested alternative approaches?
- We would value hearing from members about their own experiences/insights?
Plan timeline
| 23 Nov 2023 | Pilot Seasons of Life workshop with health, education and charity |
|---|---|
| 12 Jan 2024 | Feedback on Workshop to Child Directorate Bereavement Operational Group |
| 5 Feb 2024 | Initial meeting to forming a project steering group |
| 21 Feb 2024 | Initial baseline data collection underway |
| 22 Apr 2024 | Steering Group Meeting with key representatives |
| 30 Apr 2024 | Analyse baseline data |
| 17 Jun 2024 | Pilot Seasons of Life second workshop |
| 24 Jun 2024 | Analyse PDSA data, review workshop content |
| 26 Aug 2024 | Training staff to deliver workshop |
| 2 Sep 2024 | Roll-Out Workshops (PDSA cycles) |
| 7 Apr 2025 | Share and spread |
Comments
Vincenta Leyden 29 May 2024
This is such a worthwhile and important project. We are meeting more younger people with MND - and with families. In a recent meeting with HSCPs support for children of parents affected by MND. How we/ they might explain the disease and better prepare them, gently, towards loss and bereavement. I see this as an important part of psycho-social support, demystifying a disease and its progressions. Would be interested to hear about your project with a local secondary school and what we at the MND Association might learn from your work. Thank you for sharing. Would be interested to hear more.
Sinead Hannan 29 May 2024
Hi Vincenta. Thank you for taking the time to post comments and how the project links in with the worthwhile work you are doing. We would be happy to connect with you about the progress of the project. I'm sure there is learning we could benefit from as well from the services you provide. We also plan to post updates later in the year on this Q Community platform.
Una Hughes 29 May 2024
Good luck with this much needed project, it's great to have involvement from so many areas, from my own experience, Health and Education across the Southern Trust, work well together to improve the lives of our children and young people. Breaking down barriers, communicating well and working together with all the stakeholders is a great achievement, which can only lead to more collaborations. Have you considered the bereavement needs of children in special schools or those with special educational needs? Will this form part of your project ?
Sinead Hannan 29 May 2024
Thanks for your comments Una. We are fortunate in the Southern Trust (and in our steering group) to have people, services and systems keen to collaborate to improve the quality of lives of children and families. Although at this stage we will be focusing on the adolescent population for our initial PDSAs, there is huge potential for spreading the intervention into other areas including special schools but also beyond the school context - intellectual disability, adults and older adults. We would be happy to collaborate with you to facilitate the scale and spread of the project.
Ronan McBride 29 May 2024
If anyone is interested, please find the link to our collaborative Rich Picture/Sketch-note that helps to tell the story so far...
https://x.com/PaediatricShsct/status/1795400846865465508
Mark Irwin 28 May 2024
This is an area that affects so many young lives and is often neglected. Therefore it is great to see an initiative dedicated to addressing this issue. So many of the stereotypes and misconceptions around grief are acknowledged even within the title when it is referred to as a journey. Really hope this is successful and look forward to seeing how it progresses.
Ronan McBride 29 May 2024
Thanks Mark for the kind comment. I believe the team has a robust plan in place to make this project work. Fingers crossed for the vote that we can get a chance to make a really positive impact on our local young people. I know the team as a whole believes it is something that we can replicate and spread to other areas.
Ronan
Ronan McBride 24 May 2024
Hi everyone.
If you'd like to see some more about the project, we have created this short video to help explain what 'Seasons of Life' is all about.
We would love you to send in any questions, or feel free to engage with us. We would love to hear from you.
https://youtu.be/HRcgZBoZXeY?si=5PkQODsSK-V3B9_N
Helen Currie 20 Mar 2024
This project would be invaluable to young people suffering a bereavement as there is currently a lack of services to help young people in schools with coping with a bereavement. Also would be helpful to identity families before they reach crisis point and to put in the supports they require.
Sinead Hannan 20 Mar 2024
Thanks Helen for the taking the time to provide your comments. Through this project we would hope to change culture around bereavement care opening up communication about the loss and access support when needed as early as possible but also to support normal grieving process. The workshop aims to normalise but also validate the young persons experiences. As it is done in a single session format it means it is accessible at times when needed as young people can attend once or more as needed. We would hope to train up professionals to run the workshop, increasing the capacity resource across systems to ensure there is an increase in access to supports across the trust.
Leanne Spratt 19 Mar 2024
This sounds like an invaluable project that is greatly needed within Southern Trust following the recent trauma that occurred within C&B locality. Parental death has a significant impact on children's emotional wellbeing and this service will benefit children at a vulnerable stage in their young lives.
Sinead Hannan 20 Mar 2024
The trauma experienced in that community area was tragic and affected a lot of people. We are planning to offer the project within the school impacted by the losses. Loss affects people in different ways and at different times. The tree of life is a narrative and art based workshop which provides an opportunity for young people to illustrate their story not just of losses but also the story of their identity - their inner and outer strengths and resources. The workshop can also be provided with staff in education, health and voluntary & community agencies to support them in their role in caring for families.
Victoria Simpson 16 Mar 2024
Hi Sinead,
This is a much needed resource- so many children & young people suffer lose and yet are often overlooked at the impact this grieve can have on their emotional & mental wellbeing.
Within the health visiting role & taking a whole family approach it would such a great resource knowing that group & 1:1 sessions would be available & how to signpost families to these.
I look forward to hearing more as this project unfolds
Kind regards
Victoria
Sinead Hannan 20 Mar 2024
Your comments from a health visiting perspective are appreciated. By bringing the systems around the young people we can provide an opportunity for them to meet people who can provide bereavement care - real connections rather than paper referral. In our pilot we ran the young people following meeting people from nursing, psychology and Cruse, reached out to school nursing after the workshop for the first time to access their own support. We will keep you updated through this forum on the progress of our project.
Michelle Mooney 15 Mar 2024
This is an invaluable project to be a part of. Having previously worked as a SCPHN School Nurse I have provided targeted support to school aged children and their families for many years. I have witnessed the impact grief can have on individuals when they are unsupported. Unfortunately children and their families are often referred for support when they are really struggling or have hit crisis level.
The pilot workshop which was delivered during National Children's grief awareness week highlighted this was an effective way to implement early interventions for a number of families as well as raising awareness of the people and services available to support children. The provision of these workshops would hopefully reduce the number of families hitting crisis level due to a bereavement or loss.
Research suggests poor outcomes for bereaved children and this is very disheartening e.g. Increased risk of early mortality, increase risk of attempting or completing suicide, and poor attainment of education qualifications.
However, if supported in their grief children can often feel this is a turning point in their life with many reporting they have a positive outlook, live their life to the full and behaving with pure altruism.
Currently I work in the bereavement team as Improvement facilitator and the majority of requests for support I receive are from trust and school staff staff seeking support for bereaved children. This workshop provides a great opportunity to strengthen collaborative working.
Sinead Hannan 20 Mar 2024
Thanks for your comments Michelle. Delighted our services are working together on this project. The project will provide early intervention or intervention at the time of need. A big positive of the project is the potential for peer support, helping young people to know they are not alone in their grief and promote opportunities for connection between young people and services.
Margaret Bunting 12 Mar 2024
Hello Sinead,
Delighted that this project is being considered as it is much needed within the school aged population. The clear needs of children and young people in relation to loss is ever increasing with the associated impact on their educational attainment . If they are thinking about the person they have lost they do not have the headspace to learn. So if they can be given strategies to help them manage their grief then this will have a positive outcome for them on many levels.
Sinead Hannan 13 Mar 2024
Thanks for your support for the project. Helping children cope with bereavement and loss is a passion for the entire team. There is so much potential this project could have for children and young people to improve outcomes in different parts of their lives now and into the future.
Laura Spiers 8 Mar 2024
Firstly I would really like to commend the team on identifying such a much needed, under resourced and hugely beneficial project that no doubt will have such far reaching impacts to support young people who have experienced a bereavement.
Will there be opportunity for co-production with young people to identify if the proposed training meets their needs and is presented an a why which is meaningful to them?
Wish you the best of luck with this and I really hope this proposal is successful
Sinead Hannan 8 Mar 2024
Great comments and questions Laura. We have identified a family to join our steering group in order to have service users involved in the development and roll out of the project. We will be seeking young people’s feedback as a key part of the project development. We already had positive and constructive feedback from the first workshop. We hope to have co- designed resources and input from young people at future workshops as well. We will ensure that co-production is a keystone to our project development.
Clare Mc Keown 8 Mar 2024
Hi Sinead,
This sounds like a very exciting project! Your pilot workshop was delivered to post primary school children, in the future will this be available to primary school age children?
Clare
Sinead Hannan 8 Mar 2024
Thanks Clare for your question about deleting within primary schools. We will be starting with delivering the intervention in post primary schools using PDSA cycles but plan to spread the learning into primary schools based on the outcomes data and learning from each PDSA cycle.
Debbie O'Cleirigh 8 Mar 2024
This will be a fantastic programme for young people, especially after the recent trauma that occurred within the southern trust area. There is a definite gap in relation to bereavement support for children either on a 1:1 basis or in a group. I feel a lot of the current support is catered towards adults or families as a whole. This would be an invaluable service within the trust.
Sinead Hannan 8 Mar 2024
Delighted with your interest in our project Debbie. We hope the project does fill gap in service provision by bringing system that are out there together. The recent trauma has highlighted a need for coming together to support these young people and we hope to deliver the project within their school.
Marita Magennis 8 Mar 2024
I think this is a really important project, with the potential to reach and support many. The project provides a valuable opportunity to strengthen connections with Education sector and Health and Social Care providers. I am interested to hear about how the project is viewed by schools, is this a recognised need? I am excited to hear more about the impact of the project as it is rolled out. Best wishes, Marita
Sinead Hannan 8 Mar 2024
Thanks for your comments Marita. We had really positive support from the first school where we delivered the workshop for our pilot. We have lined up a second school for the second workshop and we are forming a list of other schools showing interest. We see the project strengthening the relationships with school staff, pupils and healthcare staff including school nursing.
Sharon McCloskey 5 Mar 2024
Hello Sinead,
I am intrigued by your project as it is an important area. I'd love to know more, especially about the nature of the single session intervention, how this links to resilience and the outcome measures you are thinking of using. Can you share your proposal? Sharon
Sinead Hannan 6 Mar 2024
Thanks for your interest in the project Sharon. We are working on the final edits of the proposal. As a sneak preview our plan is to run an educational and narrative strengths based workshop deliver jointly by Health and Voluntary & Community Agency within the school context. There is growing evidence that single session interventions (each session delivered as a stand-alone intervention) are effective in supporting well-being. We have a range of outcomes measures including referral and contacts rates, well-being measures as well as service user experience. We ran a pilot of the workshop in a secondary level school in Northern Ireland. The young people all provide positive feedback. The workshop provided the opportunity for the young people to meet staff, focus on thier resources and skills, peer support through remembering their loss together and later independently seek out further support for their well-being.
Jacqueline Morton 1 Mar 2024
Can you share how your intervention will compliment existing Trust and Community and Voluntary Services within your Trust area?
Sinead Hannan 6 Mar 2024
Many thanks for your question about the project Jacqueline. Our intervention will compliment existing Trust and Community & Voluntary Services. Our project plans to bring together Trust services, Education and a Community & Voluntary agency to deliver a workshop jointly so that children get to meet staff and find out about supports. In turn, services will get to know children and also provide a means of helping to identify children who may need additional supports from bereavement services.
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