Traumatically bereaved children and young people experience significant distress and difficulties, over and above a more typical grief. Traumatic bereavement can be easily missed or misunderstood by parents, teachers and even bereavement practitioners, meaning that children’s difficulties are not recognised.

The UK Trauma Council (UKTC), hosted and supported by the Anna Freud Centre, has collaborated with Child Bereavement UK, Winston’s Wish and the Childhood Bereavement Network, to create a new portfolio of resources on traumatic bereavement.

This portfolio of free, evidence-based resources is for school staff, bereavement services and NHS mental health services, and include:

• Resources for schools and colleges: featuring a comprehensive written guide with supporting tools including videos, plus a 4-minute animation.
• Clinical resources: featuring an extensive practice guide and supporting videos to support those working therapeutically with children and young people.

The resources will provide the knowledge and tools to give traumatically bereaved children and young people appropriate help and support. These resources have been created in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has had a profound impact on children and young people’s mental health.

View or download the traumatic bereavement resources here.

The UK Trauma Council has also translated the clinical guide and schools guides into Welsh and there is an animation with Welsh subtitles. These sit on a series of webpages translated from the English webpages.