ePoster
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Abstract Description
Institution: Precious Wings Ltd - Queensland, Australia
Precious Wings (PW) is a Queensland based charity, established in 2013 following the loss of the CEO’s son, Toby. Losing a child is one of the most tragic events that a family could possibly experience. It is heart-breaking and a very lonely time. Our mission is to provide love, hope, understanding and support to families facing the devastating loss of their child. We aim to ensure all families who have lost a child have a feeling of ‘not being alone' and help them to navigate this difficult grief journey.
Since 2013, PW has supported over 5000 families through the gifting of memory boxes. We support 46 hospitals across Queensland, hospices and funeral homes. PW provides ongoing bereavement support to families, through connection with other bereaved families who have had a similar experience as well as through facilitated support group meetings. When parents lose a child, there is an importance to continuing to still parent their child and ‘to do for’ and ‘be with’ them, even after death. Rituals at the time of death and creating tangible memories can offer immense comfort, help families assimilate the experience and eventually help them to transition to a new relationship with their child.
In addition, Precious Wings provides grief and bereavement education to health professionals across a number of Queensland Health services.
This presentation will explore the support Precious Wings provides, why it is so important and the lifelong beneficial outcomes of PW’s work in supporting bereaved families at the most devastating time. It will also include feedback from bereaved families to illustrate what the impact of this support is. Insights from health professionals who care for bereaved families will also be explored and how Precious Wings’ services also supports them. I would also be very happy to explore the option of doing a memory making workshop combined with hints and tips for caring for bereaved families, introducing memory making etc informed by the lived experience and also the work of Precious Wings (as above).
Since 2013, PW has supported over 5000 families through the gifting of memory boxes. We support 46 hospitals across Queensland, hospices and funeral homes. PW provides ongoing bereavement support to families, through connection with other bereaved families who have had a similar experience as well as through facilitated support group meetings. When parents lose a child, there is an importance to continuing to still parent their child and ‘to do for’ and ‘be with’ them, even after death. Rituals at the time of death and creating tangible memories can offer immense comfort, help families assimilate the experience and eventually help them to transition to a new relationship with their child.
In addition, Precious Wings provides grief and bereavement education to health professionals across a number of Queensland Health services.
This presentation will explore the support Precious Wings provides, why it is so important and the lifelong beneficial outcomes of PW’s work in supporting bereaved families at the most devastating time. It will also include feedback from bereaved families to illustrate what the impact of this support is. Insights from health professionals who care for bereaved families will also be explored and how Precious Wings’ services also supports them. I would also be very happy to explore the option of doing a memory making workshop combined with hints and tips for caring for bereaved families, introducing memory making etc informed by the lived experience and also the work of Precious Wings (as above).
Presenters
Authors
Authors
Kerry Gordon - Precious Wings
