bereavement support options

"Those who have no time to mourn
he lacks the time to heal.”

- Sir Henry Taylor -

Everything that lives also dies. Life is not safe - not even for children!
Ever since the founding of Sterneninsel it was clear that another area was needed in addition to hospice work: bereavement support.

The mourning area was constantly expanded and in 2021 consisted of a dedicated team of two full-time and three volunteers. In order to participate in this, all volunteers for hospice training must undergo additional bereavement training. Working with grieving children, young people and the adults who belong to them requires sensitivity and is as diverse as life itself. In every family that we are contacted by, something different has happened: it can be a sudden death or a long-term illness, there is death before, during or after birth, there is violent crime and then there is the suicide.

In our work, grief is always related to a death and it is always about accompanying children, adolescents or young adults.

Children can experience dying, death and grief in their immediate environment Sterneninsel be helpful as a contact person. After a death, hospice care can lead to bereavement care. Most of the time, however, we are asked for our assignments from outside.

We receive inquiries from parents, for whom it is often sufficient to give a few impulses over the phone. They then feel confirmed in their plans or clearer in their formulations and can continue on their way on their own. If more help or support is needed, we will be happy to come and meet you in person at the home of the affected family. In this way, a first contact can take place that is in the safe area of ​​​​the child. We inform and advise. Each family chooses what is suitable for them from the possible offers. The solutions can be very different.

We can be contacted at very different stages: shortly before or after death, weeks or months after the funeral and sometimes even years later.

Acute grief support

Sometimes a family with children needs help in an acute case and we are contacted by the children's clinic, the palliative care ward or the Christian hospice after consultation with the parents. It can make a lot of sense here if we can join in the final phase of death to give everyone in the family a good farewell. Especially the so-called "lock-up time" between death and burial is a very valuable time. Things can still be done and carried out together here that are no longer possible after the funeral. It is an empirical value that there are many opportunities in early support.

"When life falters, grieving children need protection and security."

Some people want to "save" children from funerals and confusing, stressful grieving processes. However, this is misguided protection. If children are not sufficiently informed, they can develop fantasies that are worse than reality: for example, the fear that cancer is a contagious disease. Children need a counterpart who asks the important questions and does not avoid them. They want to be included, they want to participate. Children also have a right to say goodbye.

Individual accompaniment mourning

After an acute phase with death and burial, individual accompaniment can follow, which takes place in our rooms. This does not follow any rigid rules. Rather, we draw from a wide variety of methods and always focus on the needs of the child concerned.

The aim is that the individual accompaniment leads to a grief group after a certain time. You can gain valuable experience here.

Prerequisites for accompaniment

We are often first asked for help by concerned relatives, friends and those close to us in the family, or pedagogues and educators get in touch.
However, in order to be able to take action at all, we always need an order from the legal guardian.

Sterneninsel Pforzheim - Team Mylene Krink-Zorn

Contact

Mylene Zorn
Certified creative therapist, child and youth grief counselor

Tel: 07231 5662773
E-mail: grief@sterneninsel.com

Sterneninsel Pforzheim - Team Petra Kreis

Contact

Petra Circle
Kinesiologist (DGAK)
Child and youth bereavement counselor

Tel: 07231 5662773
E-mail: grief@sterneninsel.com

Other offers

For adolescents and young adults we have already offered temporary projects in the past. Unfortunately, this was not possible for us in 2021. Their implementation is sometimes a real challenge with regard to the time management of pupils, trainees or students. A planned photo project should be our next goal.

A death in the vicinity of a social institution such as a kindergarten group, school class or after-school club, often leads to great uncertainty. What to do? How react? What do children and young people need in this situation? We support educators, teachers etc. in an advisory capacity in such a case. If you wish, we can also come to you on site. The first facilities are already focusing on prevention and are looking for our help in advance to work out a good concept for themselves - just in case. We are happy to offer our support here; in the form of seminars and lectures.

facts and figures

In the "mourning" section of the Sterneninsel In 2021, a total of 58 families with their 96 children were accompanied by two full-time employees. As a rule, three volunteers together with the two full-time employees looked after a bereavement group with 11 children each.

All of our services are free of charge for the mourners.

The BVT (Federal Association of Grief) has been involved in the health policy discussion for many years and has set itself the goal of including bereavement support as a preventive measure in the catalog of health insurance benefits in the medium term. Until then, all the costs we incur to support grieving people cannot be settled anywhere. This means that we are 100% dependent on donations for the grief work.

Coordination of hospice support

Klaudia Kreiter-Eyle
Pediatric nurse, palliative care specialist, ethnologist

Baerbel Lamprecht
Child and youth hospice attendant

Tel: 07231 8001008
E-mail: mail @sterneninsel.com

If you cannot reach us personally, please leave us a message on the answering machine.

Coordination of bereavement support

Mylène Krink-Zorn
Certified creative therapist, child and youth grief counselor

Petra Circle
Child and youth bereavement counselor

Tel: 07231 5662773
E-mail: grief@sterneninsel.com

Please leave us a message on the answering machine.

Sterneninseloffice

Simone Hochmuth

Tel: 07231 8001008
E-mail: mail @sterneninsel.com

You will reach us:
Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m
At other times, please leave us a message on the answering machine.

Sterneninsel - Information information evening October