Social services

Involvement in the field of social services inevitably entails working closely with vulnerable children and their families who are dealing with loss in many different guises including drug and alcohol abuse, child protection issues, fostering and adoption, children being taken into care and children acting as young carers in a myriad of different family circumstances.

Although CBC's work focuses on loss through bereavement, many parallels exist with the reactions of all involved in such situations of loss.

Vulnerable children can be further disadvantaged by the death of someone significant in their lives. Parents already in crisis can be faced with the death of their child or partner. Understanding the needs of bereaved children and parents helps us provide these families with the support they need at the time of a death and in the longer term.

The Child Bereavement Charity's training has been accessed by many individuals working for social services, and has also been taken countrywide to groups of social workers in particular locations. Training can also be specifically devised around particular aspects relevant to your work, including the importance of staff support in this particularly difficult area of work.

In addition, the charity produces a range of resources helpful to both professionals and families they care for:

• 'My book about our baby who died' - a workbook to help children express their feelings about the death of a baby in the family
• 'My book about me' - a workbook for children with a life-limiting illness or condition
• 'This is about me' - a workbook to help terminally ill parents explain their illness and their feelings to their children
• 'A teenage guide to bereavement' written by a teenager for teenagers
• 'Someone died - It happened to me' - a video for children and young people which can be used in conjunction with CBT's Activity and Information Pack, 'Loss, Death and grief'
• 'When a child grieves' - a video designed to be used by professionals to help parents, children and young people understand about loss, death and grief (incorporating extracts from Someone died - 'it happened to me')

Please visit our Online Shop to view our full range of resources.