Supporting children following loss, bereavement and traumatic incidents

The Educational Psychology Service will offer support to Wolverhampton schools and services in the immediate aftermath of a critical (traumatic) incident or major disaster, as part of the Local Authority’s response. The Wolverhampton Critical Incident Pathway can be found in the document Coping with Crises (a Guide for Schools and Services for Children & Young People within the Local Authority).

Below are a range of documents aimed at supporting families to support their child(ren) following loss, bereavement or traumatic incidents.

Guidance Documents

• How a bereaved child/young person may respond
• Early Years (Age 0-2)
• Early Years (Ages 2-5)
• Primary Years (Ages 5-8)
• End of Primary/Secondary (Ages 9-14)
• Older Adolescents and Young Adults (Ages 15-25)
• General guidance for parents/carers
  When supporting your child/children (any age) following loss/bereavement/traumatic incident
• A Guide for Young People (11-25 years)
  Following loss/bereavement/traumatic incident

Starting difficult conversations

• Emotion coaching scripts to support conversations with children/young people following critical incidents
  Starting conversations following a loss, bereavement or traumatic incident can be difficult. This document contains scripts that can be adapted and used to start these conversations to help children and young people understand their feelings and feeling supported by those around them.

Useful Resources

• Signposting to useful resources
  Contains signposting to useful websites and other resources (books, podcast, practical activities and SEND-specific support).