ST. PAUL – Every year, there are about 200,000 children in Canada who experience the death of someone in their extended family, according to information from the Canadian Alliance for Grieving Children and Youth (CAGCY).
And by the time they turn 18 years old, one in 14 children will experience the death of a sibling or a parent.
“The death of a parent or sibling has been found to be one of the most stressful life events that a child or youth can experience,” reads information from the CAGCY website. “Therefore, it is important to provide children with information about grief, normalize their responses and encourage them to share their thoughts and feelings.
The St. Paul Regional Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) recently hosted Camp Sunshine, a bereavement camp for children in the area ages 7-12, helping them navigate their emotions after losing someone special in their life.
Director Lynn Smid said they did a variety of activities to help the children with their grief and how to manage it. “How do you cope when you’re sad, mad, or angry.”
“What are the positive skills that you can use to help you as you work those feelings,” she said. It is about letting the children know that it is important for them to express those feelings to someone they feel safe with.
The camp also included moments when the children were able to remember their special person, like creating a memory box filled with various items dear to them, or items that reminded them of that special someone.
“That, in itself, is healing,” said Smid.
Caregiver
In dealing with grief, assisting the caregiver is also important, she explained.
The caregiver of the child is usually a member of their family – often a parent. So, they may be grieving too.
“It’s pretty hard sometimes to help your child grieve, when you’re grieving yourself. Even as adults, we sometimes don’t know how to handle our grief.”
Grieving goes both ways for the parent and the child. There are situations too when the child may have lost their primary caregiver and is with a different family.
Many children are going through grief, she says, and she hopes to open up the bereavement camp for more children in the future.
Grief, however, is a process, Smid said.
“We can’t solve everything in a week camp. That being said, we can start the conversation in the journey for those kids and assist the caregiver in being able to continue that journey with their child.”
When asked what was biggest the response from the children who attended Camp Sunshine, Smid says, “When they want to give you a hug at the end.”
