Saying nothing is not an option – the education sector needs a strategy to help students deal with grief and loss  

Loss is common in childhood with one in four Australian children experiencing parental separation, divorce or death during childhood or adolescence. Family breakdown can create feelings of loss and fear for children and young people who are often excluded from decisions that will impact on their futures.

Frequently, children’s mental health issues are picked up at school by teachers who rely on instinct, and empathy to pick up signs that a child is not coping. Teacher preparation to support grieving students is uncommon and most schools do not have a planned holistic response to support students to deal with traumatic events in their lives.

MacKillop Family Services (MacKillop), through its Good Grief program, delivers high quality loss and grief training and education programs throughout Australia. The programs provide a safe learning environment where children and young people can give a voice to their experience, understand their feelings and learn new ways to adapt from loss.

One of Good Grief’s most widely adapted programs, Seasons for Growth, is an evidence-based change and loss education program that uses imagery of the seasons to illustrate the experience of grief. The program has supported in excess of 300,000 children, young people and adults in 7 countries, receiving a ‘high’ impact status in the Australian Research Council’s 2018-19 Engagement and Impact study. Seasons for Growth also supports refugee children, young people following suicide events and children involved in natural disasters and drought, adults experiencing loss, Indigenous people, prisoners, and parents of children in the program.

Through its Education and Grief and Loss programs, MacKillop Family Services is hosting a two-day conference as part of its commitment to support children, young people and families to heal from adversity.

National and international experts in childhood education, mental health and organisational wellbeing will come together for the Lead the Way Towards Wellbeing conference in Sydney on 31 October and 1 November 2019. Through presentations and workshops, they will share their experience in innovative whole school approaches and the latest research regarding the impacts of trauma, loss and grief on children’s wellbeing and learning.

The conference will also focus on the rights of children. Professor Anne Graham AO, Director of the Centre for Children and Young People at Southern Cross University is one of Australia’s leading researchers in the area of Childhood and Youth Studies and children’s rights.  Professor Graham will share her research at the conference and reflect on the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

“The main international human rights treaty on children’s rights is the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which Australia ratified in December 1990 and it’s time to see how we are tracking and whether a rights emphasis is reflected in policies, programs and services aimed at improving children and young people’s lives,” Professor Graham said.

Rosie Batty AO will talk about the impact of Family Violence and the experiences of loss and grief, a major issue in Australia irrespective of age, culture, sexual identity, ability, ethnicity, religion or socioeconomic status.

Keynote speakers also include Assoc Prof Judith Murray, Associate Professor in Counselling and Counselling Psychology, The University of Queensland, who will explore the theory and lived experience of grief and trauma; Assoc. Prof. Sandra Bloom, M.D.; Butchulla and Gawara salt water man, Isaiah Dawe, Founder of ID. Know Yourself; Brendan Murray, Director of Article 26 and Allan Sparkes, CV, OAM, VA.

Education workshops will address exclusion, conflict, loss and grief, emotional and behavioural difficulties and mental health issues with evidence-based strategies that can be integrated into classroom management, wellbeing and pastoral care practices in your school. These evidence-based strategies support students to heal and re-engage with learning while supporting staff wellbeing and sustainable change.

Lead the Way Towards Wellbeing takes place on Thursday 31 October and Friday 1 November 2019 at Waterview, Bicentennial Park, Sydney Olympic Park.

Find out more about the conference program and registration details by visiting the website: www.cvent.com/d/f6qbkp or contact Good Grief directly at events@mackillop.org.au or 02 8912 2700.