Bereavement Support for Young People

One-to-One Bereavement Support for Young People - specialist grief counselling for young people.

Children and young people feel grief as keenly as any adult but may express this in different ways and need additional help in coming to terms with their loss. We therefore offer specialist advice and support services for children and young people of all ages, with approaches tailored to the individual child, their age and stage.

Many of our volunteers have been specially trained to work with children and young people. They understand the challenges that grieving youngsters face – for example, the impact that living with grieving adults can have on them and how siblings can need individual support. Our volunteers can also help when someone a child’s own age dies.

Many children and young people experience the death of a parent, caregiver, sibling, friend or grandparent. Even very young children can be deeply affected by the death of someone close. Children and young people react differently depending on their age and understanding but all should be supported to understand and express their grief.

Cruse Bereavement offers children and young people a safe environment in which to talk about how they feel. Bereavement Support Volunteers enable children and young people bereaved by death to understand their grief and cope with their loss.

One-to-one Bereavement Support...

If you are a young person and feel you need some help following the death of a loved one or friend, we have some specialist services, resources and information available to you.

Our kind, compassionate and carefully trained volunteers are here to offer support to you and your child following a bereavement.

Cruse Scotland believes that whenever possible, children are best supported within their family unit and so we offer a range of services to help children, whilst equipping their families, or carers, and schools with information and advice too. All support is tailored to the needs of you and your child.

The first step to getting help for your child is to call our National Bereavement Helpline on 0808 802 6161.

We also provide specialist support for young people up to the age of 25, who can either choose to call our helpline directly themselves or have an adult call on their behalf.

Where does the counselling take place?

One-to-one support with one of our carefully selected and trained counsellors takes place either at your local Cruse Scotland’s premises or at another agreed venue, including (in the case of child) the child’s school if possible and desirable.

We can also offer sessions over the phone or through confidential video conferencing.

A session normally lasts for about one hour.

Bereaved adults will be offered an initial appointment of 50 minutes - this will be offered to you as quickly as possible. This time is used to assess the help that would be best suited to you, and whether or not Cruse Scotland is the best organisation to help you. If it is, you will be placed on a waiting list until a bereavement counsellor is available. If we feel Cruse Scotland is not likely to be the best organisation to help you, we will suggest other options.

How much does it cost?

All Cruse Scotland counselling and listening services are free. The counsellors and other volunteers all provide their services free of charge. However, as we rely on client donations to help fund the operating costs of our charity, we do invite adult clients to make a donation if they can afford to.