Navigating Grief and Loss

This guide is intended to support parents, caregivers, and child welfare professionals who have children and/or young people in their care that are grieving the loss of an important person, place, or fixture in their lives. This guide provides information on what grief is and how it may present differently from person to person, how to navigate difficult conversations about death with both children and young people, as well as tailored resources for supporting children and young people. It includes resources specifically for grieving adults, too. 

(Learning Through Loss, n.d.)
 

As per the infographic above, grief and loss are not experiences limited to death. In child welfare, children and young people experience loss and grief when they are separated from family during a shift into alternative care. In addition to grieving the family they were uprooted from, they may be grieving the home, school, friends, and all the daily habits they had before being placed in alternative care. This type of loss is unique and especially difficult as the child will be grieving many layered losses that all occur at the same time (e.g., the loss of their room, a pet, grandparents, an older sibling, a familiar neighbour). 

This guide covers many different instances of loss and grief that may elicit various emotions and reactions. Much like grief and loss are not experiences limited to death, the ways in which people feel during these circumstances vary, too. People of all ages feel and experience grief. The difference is that as adults, grief is typically all encompassing and hits all at once (Life Source, 2022). Whereas for children, grief is experienced in spurts as that is what they are able to emotionally handle (Life Source, 2022). With this being said, grief is neither predictable nor orderly and its characteristics cannot be easily categorized - despite the popularity of the "stages of grief" (Wolfelt, n.d.). When we try to fit our own grief or the grief of others into neat, little boxes we may not be properly supporting or nurturing that person through their grief and mourning process (Wolfelt, n.d.).

"Getting support for your own grief process helps you stay available to your children."
(New York Life Foundation, 2019)

For Families

• Aboriginal Health Centre
• Bereaved Families Ontario-Toronto
• Victim Crisis Response Program
• Hospice Simcoe: Bereavement Support
• CAMH: Where to go when you're looking for help 
• Threads of Life: Workplace Tragedy Support
• Jewish Family and Child Services of Greater Toronto: Bereavement 
• Sunnybrook: Pregnancy and Infant Loss Network

For Children and Youth

• Lighthouse For Grieving Children
• Help Us Understand Grief (HUUG) Program
• Bereaved Families of Ontario: Youth Programs
• Seasons Centre for Grieving Children

For Survivors of Suicide Loss

For resources on this topic please visit the Suicide and Suicide Prevention LibGuide.