International Conference 2024 | Grief and Bereavement Support for Children and Families

The 10th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health (ICSWHMH) was held in November 2024 in Melbourne. This significant event in successfully brought together social work professionals, researchers, educators, and students from around the world to discuss and share the latest developments in the field of social work in health and mental health.

Recording 1

What Do Children Want to Know About Death and Grief?

Presenter: Ms Shelly Skinner (Australia, WA)

This presentation highlights the importance of recognising and responding to children’s experiences of grief, and the critical role of social workers in supporting bereaved children and their families. It explores how children experience and express grief in unique ways and outlines practice approaches that support emotional processing, including therapeutic programs and grief camps. The presentation emphasises the value of clear, age-appropriate communication about death, meaningful inclusion of children in conversations, and the creation of safe, nurturing environments to support children through loss.

Recording 2

Death is Everyone's Business: Developing and Implementing a Systematic Approach to Bereavement Support at a Major Tertiary Australian Hospital

Presenters: Nicola Hainsworth & Jo Di Ciero Austin Health (Australia, VIC)

This session benefits Social Workers working in hospitals, palliative care, and those with an interest in bereavement support. Bereavement support is a critical element of end-of-life care and a frequent intervention in hospitals; however formalised and systematic approaches are lacking within this setting.

While grief is a normal emotional reaction to bereavement, for a subgroup of individuals the symptoms are more intense and persistent. These individuals are at risk of complicated grief, which can result in healthcare utilisation, frequent hospitalisation, and reduced psychosocial functioning, in the absence of early identification.

The developed evidence-based model has a two-tiered approach, ensuring a sustainable and systematic approach to identifying and providing bereavement support to families. Social Workers play an essential role in bereavement support through the completion of a bereavement risk screen to identify those at risk of complicated grief. Intervention is provided on a trajectory from pre death to six months following death.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the developed Bereavement Support Model and associated tools, and how to apply it to clinical practice.
• Understand differences between normal grief reactions and complicated grief.
• Identify key risk factors and protective / resilience factors considered when screening for risk of complicated grief.

Recording 3

The Wisdom of Wombats: Research on Wombats Wish Grief Programs for Parentally Bereaved Children and Families

Presenters: Ms Frances McAloon & Ms Jill Crookes (Australia, VIC)

Wombat’s Wish Inc. is a leading not-for-profit organisation providing specialised grief support to families across Victoria who have experienced the death of a parent.

Valuing the stories of people who have let us in to their most vulnerable moments is critical. In 2024 we conducted a research project involving a review/ analysis of four years of the flagship grief weekend program data to ensure the program is an evidence-based, effective grief service. This comprised a literature review of theoretical frameworks underpinning bereavement services for children/ youth, analysis of demographic data of four years of Wombat’s Wish weekend programs, and qualitative review comparing best practice evidence to the components of our weekend program.

We found that despite there being few gold-standard measures for childhood grief, all the elements and activities of the residential program such as memory jars, grief expression through telling their story, exploring difficult feelings, candlelight ceremony and dove release and more align with current grief theory and a strong evidence base.

Parent attendance and support to them is vital. Grief services for families are a powerful resource promoting resilience, coping and growth. Wombats Wish provides psychoeducation, weekend grief programs, 1:1 counselling, online lounge chats and Family days.