Developing services for bereaved children: A discussion of the theoretical and practical issues involved

The purpose of this paper is to address some important issues that relate to the development of bereavement services for children and the resources and skills needed to provide these services.The impetus for this paper came from a consensus session entitled 'Bereaved Children: theoretical perspectives on service development', organized by the Bereavement Research Forum for the 5 th Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care in London, September 1997. This session moved the debate from identifying the needs of bereaved children to looking at the development of appropriate services. The theoretical, contextual and external factors which shape and focus services were discussed at the session and the themes have been developed and presented in this paper. Services for bereaved children are beginning to develop in the UK, with minimal national debate and no agreed standards or guidelines. Using the 'needs' of bereaved children identified from existing services (information, companionship, emotion...