Isabel Hospice’s Children’s Service has been nominated for an Inspiring Herts Award for the way in which it has adapted its counselling and therapeutic group sessions in response to lockdown restrictions.
The team have been shortlisted as a finalist in the Hertfordshire Heroes Award category for their work offering remote counselling, online therapeutic bereavement groups and virtual youth focus groups during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our staff undertook additional training in online counselling in order to adapt the service in response to the restrictions put into place during the coronavirus crisis as well as the increasing demand for our support.
As a result, our Children’s Service which is generously funded by BBC Children in Need, has been able to deal with an increased caseload compared to the previous year, with the number of activities, sessions and telephone calls all on the rise. In total, 485 remote counselling sessions were offered to families by a single counsellor over a 12-month period.
The virtual sessions have been so successful that we plan to continue them as a permanent method of support even when Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.
In addition, bereavement training has also been delivered to four groups of school staff to help better support children suffering loss and bereavement.
Our Children’s Service counsellor and co-ordinator Buddhika Arachchige said the changes had been “well received”, adding: “We previously offered virtual support for counselling, but had it not been for the pandemic, we would never have thought of this approach for the type of audience that we normally cater to.
“We observed that this approach was responded to positively by a certain cohort of children. Steps were taken to see children face-to-face as best we could but, moving forward, we intend to keep virtual support as an option for service delivery.”
One child who we have supported through the pandemic is 10-year-old Alissa (name has been changed) following the loss of her grandmother to cancer.
Buddhika said: “To Alissa, her Nan was ‘super nan’. Alissa saw her Nan in every important occasion of her life and the loss after this intimacy left a huge void in Alissa’s little world.
“She was feeling like she was going to explode not being able to express her grief and felt played up by her emotions. She had increasing moments of lashing out, anxieties creeping in and was missing Nan. Above all, seeing how much her mum was struggling after the loss debilitated her. Alissa’s mum had the worry that she would not be strong enough for Alissa.
“Alissa was seen shifting her anxiety from one type to another for quite a long time whilst receiving help. She was supported with a range of psychotherapeutic techniques to help her express and validate her feelings and gradually she was able to find her feet again.”
The Children’s Service has also been recruiting and training extra volunteers to support its future activities as lockdown restrictions ease and now has five registered volunteers to support its programme of groups.
Two of these groups – Mindfulness for Children and Children’s Feelings and Sounds – are due to resume at our Hall Grove hub from September.
The winners of the Inspiring Herts Awards 2020/21 will be announced at a Gala Dinner on September 9th.
