useful guides

The festive season is often associated with joy, celebration, and togetherness. However, for those experiencing grief, this time of year can be particularly challenging. The holiday break can intensify feelings of loss, longing, and hurt. Here are some coping strategies for individuals, children and young people navigating grief during the festive period.

Rituals, like a funeral or scattering ashes in a special place, are an important way for families to say goodbye to someone who has died. Children may also benefit from the chance to remember that person or say goodbye. It can also help them express their grief and share it with others. However, funerals and what they mean will raise questions about what happens to the body, and what happens next.

Families often have special ways of celebrating or acknowledging milestones, and these rituals can help families come together to share in meaningful moments. In the same way when someone dies, funerals can help us all, including children and young people, feel united in remembering and sharing our stories of the person who has died.

Death in the media is very visible and can have a huge social impact. The way in which the public can mourn collectively was seen when the nation grieved for Diana Princess of Wales.

Everyone will experience and express grief in different ways, it’s the same with journaling, there are no rules, no right way to do it, just find what works for you

Experiencing the death of someone important to you is extremely painful and difficult. As a young adult, you may already be coping with a lot of stress in your life such as important exams or starting a new job.

When a colleague or employee dies it can have a significant affect on individuals in the workplace. For many, the person who died is somebody that they may have spent a lot of time with.

The start of a new year whilst trying to deal with the death of someone close brings a mix of emotions, and for children and young people this can be especially challenging.

The death of a grandparent is often a child’s first experience of death and means that they are not only managing the loss of that person but also the confusing and sometimes scary questions about death itself.

Children and young people may react in a number of ways to the death of someone close to them. Although there are generally recognised and agreed upon emotional responses to death, it is important to note that progression is not linear or based on time since death.

Preparing children or young people for the death of a loved one is the hardest thing anyone will do. You will most likely be managing your own shock and distress, making these necessary conversations an even more daunting prospect.

Although death is universal, the expression of grief varies greatly between different cultures and religions. It is important to acknowledge how this shapes an individual’s perception and experience of death.