Winston’s Wish

Call our Helpline for bereavement support

If you’re a young person who is finding it hard to cope with their grief or an adult who needs help to support a grieving child, give our support line a call. We’re here to listen, offer support and provide information and resources. We can speak to grieving young people, parents, teachers and anyone who is supporting a grieving child. On our Helpline, we can use interpreters if you need to speak to us in a language other than English, and we can use the Relay UK app if you have hearing or speech difficulties.

Call our Freephone Helpline on 08088 020 021. We are open between 8am and 8pm, Monday to Friday.

Who will answer my call?

Our Helpline team all have wide knowledge, expertise and up-to-date experience of supporting bereaved children and their families. They are all professionally trained and will:

• Listen carefully

• Offer support

• Provide information

• Discuss options

• Make practical suggestions

• Help you work out how best to support the bereaved child

• Refer a child or young person for one-to-one bereavement support if needed

Bereavement is a natural experience, and most families are able to work through their grief, however there may be occasions when you might need more specialist support to help you answer difficult questions or cope with difficult behaviour.

Why do people call for bereavement support?

People call our bereavement support helpline to discuss a huge range of concerns and questions from: ‘Why does my daughter keep asking where daddy is when he died two months ago?’ to ‘I’m concerned about a child I’m working with. What is the best way to offer support?’.

Our Helpline team receives calls from grieving young people, parents, grandparents, step-parents, carers, aunts, uncles, friends, teachers, health visitors, faith leaders, police officers, doctors and almost anyone else you can think of. About 55% of our calls come from family members and around 45% from professionals seeking advice and guidance.

We take the time to listen carefully to your worries and questions and help you to work out how best to support the bereaved young person. We won’t tell you what to do or what not to do, but we will share our knowledge of bereavement and our experience of working with bereaved children. We’ll give you ideas to think about and maybe try.