Gaddum Centre - Campaign

Gaddum Children and Families Bereavement Service

Let us tell you about the two services

1 Children's Bereavement Counselling. 2 Palliative Care Counselling.

Service 1 - Children's Bereavement Counselling. We have been in existence for approximately 15 years and work with individuals in Manchester and Salford following a bereavement. However, we would be reluctant to work with someone immediately following a death as we would not want to interrupt the normal grieving process. Not everyone who experiences a death needs contact with a service.

Initially it has to be a young person who is referred. Once that referral has been accepted, we can also provide support to the adults who are caring for the young person, as they have often also been bereaved. We provide a separate worker for adults.

Service 2 - Palliative Care Counselling. Specialist counselling for children and families in Manchester, Salford and Stockport, who feel they need some extra support because a child has a life limiting condition or at any time after a child has died from such an illness. The service is available for the child the whole family or any member of the family, their carers or friend.

How to access the service

Firstly, you need to make telephone contact with us on 0161 834 6069 This will enable us to obtain relevant information and decide if we are the appropriate service for you. We then require a referral form completing – we do not mind who does that – it could be the young person themselves, their carer/parent or a professional who knows the family e.g. Health Visitor, Social Worker, Teacher etc. As soon as we receive the referral form the individual's name goes on the waiting list and we will send you an acknowledgement letter to let you know the referral form has been received by us. The demand for the service is high which means at times it can be a few months for the support to start, but we are happy to give telephone advice in the interim.

Firstly, you need to make telephone contact with us. This will enable us to obtain relevant information and decide if we are the appropriate service for you. We then require a referral form completing – we do not mind who does that – it could be the young person themselves, their carer/parent or a professional who knows the family e.g. Health Visitor, Social Worker, Teacher etc. As soon as we receive the referral form the individual's name goes on the waiting list and we will send you an acknowledgement letter to let you know the referral form has been received by us. The demand for the service is high which means at times it can be a few months before the support comences, but we are happy to provide telephone advice in the interim.

How does the service work?

Depending on their age, interests and level of understanding we use resources such as play, art, soft toys to develop a relationship and aid communication. The meetings with workers take place where the youngster chooses, usually at home or school, and contact will usually be weekly/fortnightly and for as many times as necessary. However, we do not offer a long term service but as everyone is individual – we try to offer what is needed in terms of length of contact. The youngest child we have worked with is almost 4 years of age up to 18 years.