̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - School of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Bereaved children missing out on vital support in UK schools, study finds

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 08:46:20 +0000

A lack of clarity on government and school policies on mental health and bereavement has led to “confusion and disagreement” on the forms of support schools should offer, says the study, which was conducted for the child bereavement charity Winston’s Wish.

Researchers led by Professor Colleen McLaughlin found a “random approach” among schools, with students reporting receiving “only little or no help at all” following the death of a parent or sibling, and academic pressures monopolising the resources available.

Teachers feel ill-equipped

Although schools recognise bereavement as a high priority, teachers say they feel ill-equipped to offer support to bereaved children, even avoiding intervention through fear of doing more harm than good.

Consequences of parental loss can include mental and physical health problems, as well as lower educational attainment. Yet evidence suggests in many cases this can be mitigated by well-managed school support, at a time when a child’s family, also coping with grief, may not be able to provide the consistent support needed.

One parent dies in the UK every 22 minutes. These parents leave behind around 41,000 dependent children a year, which is more than 100 newly bereaved children each day.

̽��ֱ��new study, Consequences of childhood bereavement in the context of the British school system, brings together a wealth of research about children who have lost a mother, father or sibling before the age of 18, with a specific focus on support from school.

“Profound effects” of loss

̽��ֱ��effects of losing a loved one are profound for children, the researchers found, with consequences for mental and physical health but also social and educational impacts, including an increased risk of under-achieving or even dropping out of school.

Psychological reactions include fear, helplessness, anxiety, anger, lower self- esteem and insomnia. While these are normal responses to the profound distress caused by the death of a parent or sibling, the support available to children immediately after a death appears to have a strong impact on their mental health longer term, research shows.

Bereavement can also make children particularly vulnerable socially, the study shows, with those from disadvantaged homes not only at increased risk of losing a loved one but already facing tougher social challenges. Having someone to talk to is vital for children and adolescents following a loss, yet one fifth of bereaved participants studied reported not having talked to anyone – a trend that correlated with an increased risk of being bullied, participating in bullying or assaults.

Schools well-placed to support

Strong social networks are key in reducing the negative effects of child bereavement, researchers found, and UK and international experts agree that schools are particularly well-suited to offer support. “Schools often already understand the needs of the individual student and are one of the arenas where children spend most of their waking hours,” says the study.

Exploring how the current British school system deals with bereavement, researchers found a lack of clarity on governmental and school policies on mental health and bereavement, leading to “both confusion and disagreement on the forms of support schools should offer and the extent of that support”. This had led to a “somewhat random approach”.

While a small number of schools have a “planned, managed and holistic response to bereavement”, most do not, and staff “often feel isolated when facing issues related to emotional wellbeing”.

Academic pressures

̽��ֱ��“highly pressured” climate in English schools, with a focus on academic outcomes eating up time and resources, made it harder to give time and attention to vulnerable pupils, researchers found. Yet the opportunity to “share difficult thoughts” with someone helped build children’s resilience, directly reducing the difficulties they would experience and the potential for high-risk behaviour.

Professor McLaughlin said: “Our review of research reinforces that grief itself is not an illness. ̽��ֱ��path that a child takes after the death of a parent or sibling is dependent on the context and multiple aspects. Some pathways make young people very vulnerable, while others do not. Support in the environment is vital, and schools are key in this.

“Young people want schools to acknowledge the bereavement but also to provide a safe space to continue as normally as possible or to have special attention – depending on the child. Teachers want to help badly but space to discuss how to respond and to form a process is being pushed out. They too are asking for help.

“There is a need for a holistic integrated response from schools, and it’s very important that young people are listened to as part of that process.”

Memories of bereavement

Faculty of Education researchers have also gathered the experiences of adults who lost parents and siblings as children. Their moving account, published today in a separate report, Voices of adults bereaved as children, reinforces the message that meaningful support is important in the aftermath of bereavement and that schools are key in providing it.

On interviewee recalled: “I just heard my father, sort of, scream in a really animal sort of way. It was a sound that I’d never heard before and even now I feel the sound physically in my body and that’s what it was like for me as a child. ... It was just like being stabbed all over my body. I just felt this, sort of, physical pain and I kind of knew, although I didn’t know, I knew from this awful sound that I heard that my mother had died.”

Another said: “I think if I just dealt with it, sooner in a way, especially when I was younger... if I’d have spoken about it ...and in secondary school, I mean I got through it, but when I think back it was a horrible time.”

Winston’s Wish is calling on all schools in the UK to develop a bereavement plan. ̽��ֱ��charity also urges the schools inspectorate Ofsted to ensure that the revised Inspection Framework takes account of the impact of bereavement on children and young people’s lives, and proposes that all trainee teachers receive core bereavement training.

It has developed a free downloadable guide to supporting bereaved children. It offers guidance on creating a bereavement policy and a procedure for when there is a death in the school community. ̽��ֱ��charity’s freephone national helpline is also available for teachers to discuss and seek advice and guidance about specific cases.

̽��ֱ��free guide for schools and the schools strategy document can be downloaded at www.winstonswish.org/schools

Support for bereaved children in schools is patchy and inadequate, and teachers feel they lack the skills to help, according to a report from the Faculty of Education.

Teachers want to help badly but space to discuss how to respond and to form a process is being pushed out

Colleen McLaughlin

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Public Lecture to address voluntary euthanasia issues

th288 — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 15:28:44 +0000

When Debbie Purdy, the right-to-die campaigner, died on 23 December, the media reminded us that, in 2009, she had “won a landmark ruling to clarify the law on assisted suicide”. Barely mentioned was the manner of her death: self-starvation.

A slow and horrible way to die, chosen, presumably, as the only way in which, being completely helpless, she could end her life without involving others, who would risk being prosecuted for assisting suicide, or even murder.

So much good her “landmark victory” did for her, or for others in her unhappy state.

In many other countries, the law enables people in Debbie Purdy’s condition to die in ways that are more humane. Among them is ̽��ֱ��Netherlands. But there, as in the UK, the law on assisted dying is controversial, and last year the Dutch government set up an official commission to look into it.

A member of this commission is the eminent Dutch criminal lawyer Professor Paul Mevis.

On Monday 26 January, at 5.30 p.m. in the Cambridge Law Faculty building on the Sidgwick Site he will give a public lecture to explain the current position in the Netherlands, the arguments surrounding it, and the proposals to amend it.

̽��ֱ��lecture is open to the public – all are welcome – and it will be followed by a drinks reception.

̽��ֱ��lecture is part of a series of talks on medico-legal topics sponsored by the ̽��ֱ��’s Baron Ver Heyden de Lancey Fund.

It coincides with the creation, within the Law Faculty, of a new Centre for law, medicine and life sciences.

̽��ֱ��creation of this new centre has been made possible by the generosity of two benefactors: the WYNG Foundation, and the Hatton Trust.

Both benefactors have strong links with Hong Kong, and the new Cambridge centre will work in parallel with a sister centre at Hong Kong ̽��ֱ��, the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, which is organising a conference later this year on end-of-life issues.

Baron Cornelius Ver Heyden de Lancey (1889-1984) was a wealthy and public-spirited Dutchman who at different times in his life was a dentist, doctor, surgeon, barrister and art historian. In 1970 he created the De Lancey and De La Hanty Foundation, to promote studies in medico-legal topics.

̽��ֱ��Foundation generously gave Cambridge the Ver Heyden de Lancey Fund, which since 1996 has funded occasional public lectures on medico-legal issues of current interest.

A public lecture in the Law Faculty next Monday will explore the current legal position on assisted suicide in the Netherlands in the light of the Debbie Purdy case.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page. For image rights, please see the credits associated with each individual image.

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Cambridge academics honoured in the 2015 New Year Honours List

pbh25 — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 13:25:29 +0000

Professor Sharon Peacock and Professor Graeme Barker are among those who have been given honours in this year’s New Year Honours list.

Clinical microbiologist Professor Sharon Peacock was awarded a CBE for her services to Medical Microbiology. Peacock is known for her work with the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme in Thailand where for seven years she directed a wide-ranging programme of bacterial disease research. In the UK she has focused on the role of sequencing technologies in diagnostic microbiology and public health.

Peacock chairs the Cambridge Infectious Diseases Initiative and is deputy director of the Wellcome Trust Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research. She was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2013. “Delighted” to have won the award, Peacock said: “I have the privilege of working with an outstanding group of scientists at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and at the Sanger Institute, and this honour reflects their support and efforts. ̽��ֱ��award also reflects the importance of basic and applied microbiological research for individual and public health.”

Professor Graeme Barker was awarded a CBE for services to Archaeology. ̽��ֱ��former Disney Professor of Archaeology and director, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, is known for his research focussing on prehistoric archaeology, the relationship between landscape and people, transitions from foraging to farming, and the origins of human behaviour and migrations.

Barker has worked all over the world, including in the rainforest of Borneo, and the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa. One of his major contributions has been work showing how humans have adapted to climate change in the past, and the lessons that can be learned from this today.

Describing himself as “thrilled” to be awarded the CBE he said: “I changed to archaeology half way through my undergraduate degree at Cambridge inspired by meeting Colin Renfrew, then a research fellow, and was privileged to succeed him as Disney Professor in 2004. It has also been a privilege to work in archaeology, which has so much to tell us about what it means to be human. It is a team subject par excellence and in accepting the award I have felt very much that it celebrates the achievements of so many colleagues, and good friends from all parts of the world whose support has been so important to anything I have achieved.

Tim Oates, Group Director of Assessment Research and Development at Cambridge Assessment, was also awarded a CBE, for Services to Education.

Simon Lebus, Group Chief Executive of Cambridge Assessment said “We are all delighted that Tim has been so honoured; it is a signal recognition of the body of work he produced during his time as a Group Director at Cambridge Assessment.”

Oates, who joined Cambridge Assessment in May 2006, said “I would like to thank all those at Cambridge Assessment who enabled me to make this contribution to improving our education system.”

Trevor Llewellyn Richards, formerly Capital Project Liaison Officer at the ̽��ֱ��’s School of Clinical Medicine, was awarded a BEM for services to Biomedical Research and the Welfare of Animals in Research. Mr Richards was Director of Central Biomedical Resources from 1996 to 2012 and has been described as an “outstanding bio-facilities manager.”

Members of the ̽��ֱ�� have been recognised for their outstanding contributions to society.

Yes