Children bereaved by suicide
Children bereaved by suicide
Author
Introduction
Thousands of children are estimated to lose a parent to suicide each year in the UK. The precise figure is not known, as there is no current nationwide system in place that counts them. However, what is known is that children who lose a parent to suicide are twice as likely to be hospitalised with depression and three times as likely to take their own life, compared with the wider population. The type of grief associated with suicide is different to other sorts of deaths: it is complex and requires specific support.
2022 Award
Anna Wardley (CF 2019) is a mental health campaigner and the founder of Luna Foundation CIC, which aims to transform support for children and young people after a parent or primary caregiver dies by suicide. Supported by one of our Covid-19 Action Fund grants, Anna set up Luna following her Fellowship, to meet the welfare needs of this particular group. Although there are several charities providing support for bereaved children, there is no other organisation which has the welfare of this particular group at its core, either in the UK or overseas.
Anna has been awarded one of our Activate grants to further develop Luna and its activities over the next 17 months. The funding will support Anna to recruit and train two or more practitioners to deliver evidence-based suicide bereavement training for people working with children and young people, and develop a hub of resources related to parental suicide and its impact on young people. The funding will also cover consultancy fees to support business planning; the production of multi-media training resources and communications to market the organisation’s services across the UK; the recruitment of a part-time Training Development and Marketing Coordinator to support the roll out of Luna Suicide Bereavement Training on a nationwide basis; and finally a stipend for Anna in her role as CEO of the organisation.
Anna hopes that this will lead to better, evidence-based support for children bereaved by parental suicide, and that this support will be scaled up across the country as more professionals join the network of Luna Ambassadors. Anna is motivated by her own experience of losing her father to suicide when she was nine years old, and wants to provide young people today with the support she never received.
Anna’s Fellowship explored best practice in supporting children bereaved by parental suicide and was supported by Samaritans and the John Armitage Charitable Trust.
2022 Award
Anna Wardley (CF 2019) is a mental health campaigner and the founder of Luna Foundation CIC, which aims to transform support for children and young people after a parent or primary caregiver dies by suicide. Supported by one of our Covid-19 Action Fund grants, Anna set up Luna following her Fellowship, to meet the welfare needs of this particular group. Although there are several charities providing support for bereaved children, there is no other organisation which has the welfare of this particular group at its core, either in the UK or overseas.
Anna has been awarded one of our Activate grants to further develop Luna and its activities over the next 17 months. The funding will support Anna to recruit and train two or more practitioners to deliver evidence-based suicide bereavement training for people working with children and young people, and develop a hub of resources related to parental suicide and its impact on young people. The funding will also cover consultancy fees to support business planning; the production of multi-media training resources and communications to market the organisation’s services across the UK; the recruitment of a part-time Training Development and Marketing Coordinator to support the roll out of Luna Suicide Bereavement Training on a nationwide basis; and finally a stipend for Anna in her role as CEO of the organisation.
Anna hopes that this will lead to better, evidence-based support for children bereaved by parental suicide, and that this support will be scaled up across the country as more professionals join the network of Luna Ambassadors. Anna is motivated by her own experience of losing her father to suicide when she was nine years old, and wants to provide young people today with the support she never received.
Anna’s Fellowship explored best practice in supporting children bereaved by parental suicide and was supported by Samaritans and the John Armitage Charitable Trust.