OmSorg (dealing with bereavement) helping bereaved children coping with their grief through participation in training groups
Every year more than 3,000 Danish children under the age of 18 experience the loss of a parent by death. Another 42,OOO children experience that their mum or dad is acutely hospitalized with a severe illness. One of the basic conditions in working with children in loss and grief is that the responsible adult person involved in the child’s unbearable situation makes space for the child to be heard, seen and understood. The key to this work is to denounce the part of our upbringing that taught us that silence is golden. Grief is not an illness, but on the contrary a very tough condition of life. lf we realise that SPEECH is golden, we can help the child continue life in spite of the wounds in the soul that a big grief causes.
A very efficient way of helping grieving children in coping with the sad feelings of loss and despair is to establish training groups lead by one or two adults. ln the group the children can meet peers who are in a situation very similar to their own. They can listen to one another, discus similarities, differences and problems. For once they can be in a forum where everyone can look at one another and freely say: "l know exacily how you feel". Since the start in 2000 the Danish Cancer Society has managed to start or support others to establish more than 200 training groups nationwide. This is still far too few to meet children’s needs, but it is a successful beginning. The presentation will give a broad overview of the effort, present some details from the work, and point out some of the benefits and outcomes for the child to be part of the group. ln addition we will show a few samples of a TV-documentary from one of the training groups.
