Aim

Early Support is a service that guides families with children through the often chaotic and traumatic weeks and months after a bereavement.

About Us
Nelson’s Journey is the only charity in Norfolk to accept open referrals for specialist support to all children and young people (aged 0-17) who have experienced the death of a significant person in their life.

Early Support
The Early Support Service is for families in the early days and weeks following the death of an important person in the child/young person’s life (within the first 4 weeks or before the funeral has taken place). Families have access to a dedicated Child Bereavement Support Worker to speak to within these difficult first weeks, when life often seems incredibly chaotic - understanding what has happened and how to communicate the death to the children can feel incredibly challenging.

With the impact of Covid and restrictions affecting everyday family life, this service gives those in need of help, the ability to receive support and guidance in a timely manner. A Child Bereavement Support Worker is available to answer questions, offer advice & guidance about being open & honest about the cause of death and advising on ways to support children to make a choice on whether to attend a funeral or view their special person in the funeral home. Service users can keep in touch with their Child Bereavement Support Worker on a regular basis to help mitigate the impact of the bereavement on the child/ children. 

Early Support was launched in autumn 2020 because we identified that a proportion of our referrals related to recent deaths (either within 4 weeks of a death or before a funeral had taken place) had doubled due to the very complex circumstances families have had to confront while planning end-of-life & funeral arrangements. This has led to many children feeling angry, anxious, confused and/or excluded. There has been exceptional demand for our services and we have seen an increase in complex cases including suicide. As a result of this, we identified the need for an immediate support service and the Early Support service was launched. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve supported 109 children from 68 families. Demand for this service has been much higher than originally anticipated and with the ongoing impact of Covid restrictions being felt by those bereaved, we expect the demand placed on this Early Support will continue to be high. We would like to raise enough funds to provide this service until the end of 2021. 

This early support not only provides a crucial lifeline to children, young people and their families, but has also reduced our waiting list for 1:1 support. More than 40% of families who have used the early support service haven’t needed to join our waiting list for further support. By providing a dedicated person to talk to from the outset, families have been provided with vital support, advice and resources, which gives caregivers the confidence to provide the best possible support to children and young people from the earliest stage of their bereavement.

Below are a couple of quotes we've received from our services users:  

“This was invaluable.  My priority after the death of my daughter was to support my other daughter with her grief whilst grieving myself.  I looked up resources and was trying to do the right thing but it was so good to speak to someone to check I was doing it right and to ask child-specific questions.   In particular, it helped me see my daughter’s trauma without my own emotional interpretation, so I was able to help her process that experience.  I am confident enough to continue our shared grief journey without continuing support from Nelson’s Journey, but am pleased that if anything changes there is always the possibility of returning.”

"I would like to say a really big thank you. Having someone to talk to and relieve me of my worries that how my children were behaving and things they were saying or questioning was perfectly normal during grief. Thank you Duncan for your time and support"

This project successfully funded on 21st September 2021