ABSTRACT
As a result of a Department of Health report in 2005, all hospitals are required to have a coordinated bereavement support or bereavement care service. Typically a paediatric hospital has had chaplains from principal denominations of the Christian church, with access to spiritual leaders from other faiths. Doctors may be involved in the casualty department, both at children's hospitals and at general hospitals, where they see the victims of accidents, of self-inflicted injuries and of emergency situations. Paramedics are often the first emergency responders on the scene, minutes after the fatal accident, onset of acute illness or discovery of the dead child. The cardinal guideline for the bereavement support worker is to facilitate choices to empower parents who have lost control over their child's life. Counsellors need good assessment skills, to take into account how the external circumstances of the bereavement and the internal make-up of the prospective client affect the appropriateness of counselling.
