20 Years of Winston's Wish

Winston’s Wish 20 years of leading the way in childhood bereavement support

In September 2012 Winston’s Wish will be celebrating its 20th anniversary year. Through research, our 20 years experience and our specialised expertise in the field of childhood bereavement we know that the right support at the right time for bereaved children and young people can have a positive life-changing impact on their lives.

This knowledge, understanding and experience of the impact of bereavement in childhood has been our driving force over the last 20 years and we have delivered and enabled support for children by:

• Establishing a pioneering community based programme of support for children and their families
• Launching the first national helpline for anyone concerned about a bereaved child – including those families where a parent is seriously ill and is expected to die
• Developing and introducing targeted support services for children bereaved through suicide, murder or manslaughter and military including ground breaking residential weekends
• Developing and delivering a national training programme for professionals to enhance their grief support skills when working with children and young people
• Introducing pioneering services specifically to meet the needs of under 5’s and teenagers
• Launching a grief support service to schools, giving guidance and support for helping children in the school setting
• Raising awareness of the issues facing bereaved children and highlighted the need for support at the appropriate time to minimise the negative outcomes it can bring
• Continuing to research and evaluate the needs of bereaved young people and our work in this field has often been published.

The death of a parent or sibling in childhood will always be one of the most fundamental losses a child will ever face. If childhood grief is not dealt with appropriately it can have a lasting effect on the child’s emotional well-being and lead to a variety of short and long term problems. Each year over 24,000 children will receive the life changing news that someone close to them has died, each year the need therefore for support continues.