Highlighting Children’s Grief Awareness Week ... What you need to know

Child Grief Awareness Week (CGAW) takes place every November in the UK.  It is an opportunity to highlight the issues impacting on so many bereaved children and young people.  It is estimated that a child is bereaved of a parent every 22 minutes in the UK.  That is an extraordinary statistic, although we are not entirely sure how many children experience a significant childhood bereavement each year.  There are no national reporting requirements, so we are estimating the need. It is something many of us are campaigning to change.

During the 2023 CGAW I highlighted a couple of issues that children face in my social media posts – a child feeling confused and guilty after a person has died and the fact that children can find it difficult to verbalise what is happening to them. How do you tell people that someone important in your life has died?

I also attended a local community cancer care centre and gave a talk on childhood bereavement.  I took along lots of books and resources to help children and young people and talked about how adults can support a child in their grief.  I hope it helped a few families, even if it touched the pain button for a people as they shared and discussed their personal stories of loss. Just a little time spent giving something to the community.

Don’t forget that my books are available on my website www.lornavyse.com together with lots of worksheets that adults can use when talking to children about death and dying.  As CGAW 2023 came to a close I realised that my work to promote support for bereaved children and young people will continue all year round.  We can all take part and don’t need a specific awareness week to offer help and support.

Will you be doing something too to ensure bereaved children’s voices are heard?