Support for Bereaved Parents and Siblings

Programme Areas

Mental health

Programme Type

Peer / advocacy / group / family whānau support, Community based support - mental health

Regions

Central Lakes, Whanganui

Age Groups

Child / Tamariki, Youth / Rangatahi, Adult / Pakeke, Older adult / Kaumātua

Referral Types

Self referral

Referral Process

Contact your local contact to find out more.

Description

The Compassionate Friends reaches across age, society, race, creed, culture and religion to offer grief support, friendship and understanding to young and old alike, who have had a child die, at any age, from any cause and at any time, recently or years ago.

The Compassionate Friends are there to support, not counsel: to offer genuine friendship, help, comfort and hope, in an understanding and informal way through the natural grieving process.

Participants are all bereaved parents dealing with the death of their child and are all on the same long and rocky pathway of grief. Newly bereaved or those who have lost children years before, can meet with others who are surviving this unimaginable loss.

Whanganui TCFW

• Coffee, Care and Chat Meetings: We welcome bereaved parents to meet us monthly at a local café The Yellow House for Coffee Care and Chat on an informal level. There is a focus topic but basically we just chat and support one another and surround newcomers with special care and understanding. Always the first Saturday of each month at 11 am.

Central Otago TCF

• We gather together to support each other every two months where we either have a speaker, watch a DVD on aspects of grief, share our experience of grief or chat informally.
• Personal support is given by phone calls, email communication and home visits, particularly to the newly bereaved and where a need is known.
• Informal coffee meetings are also arranged for those who prefer to meet in smaller groups.
• We distribute The Compassionate Friends Newsletter bi-monthly to our members and anyone else who requests it.
• Once a year we endeavour to run a grief workshop.