Teenager who lost mum says she no longer feels alone in her grief

Until recently 17-year-old Niamh says she would often feel alone while dealing with the loss of her mother who died a few years ago.

But now she says creating art and talking to other young people has helped her process that grief.

She is one of about 100 teenagers who have taken part in a project to help them deal with bereavement and loss.

Through storytelling and art, young people are encouraged to think about signs of grief with fellow pupils and are offered ways to cope with their feelings.

Niamh said: "The whole experience just made me more comfortable to talk to others about grief and I built a lot of strong friendships from it.

"I think it has just helped make me a more resilient person overall and more comfortable with expressing my feelings."

Niamh, who is a pupil at St Patrick's High School in Keady, County Armagh, says meeting other young people dealing with grief she could "relate to", helped her understand it better.

"Now you can see them around school, and they would know if you're not okay and come to talk to you, so that has been really nice."

The Seasons of Life workshops are run by the Southern Health and Social Care Trust and have been piloted at several schools in counties Armagh and Tyrone during the last year.

Joe, a year 10 pupil at St Patrick's, also took part in the project after the loss of his aunt.

"I liked that you could talk about your feelings without anybody judging you.

"I never felt I had to worry about what I was saying, because other people taking part had also lost someone.

"I'm also really happy and proud of some of the art we produced together."

One of the projects involved students writing their loved ones' names on paper symbolising a leaf and hanging it on a tree they had made together.

17-year-old Ailisha recently lost her grandfather.

She says she found the project "healing" as it was close to the anniversary of his death.

"Putting my grandad's name up on our tree felt quite comforting, and it gave me a sense of it being a special way to remember him.

"One of the big things I've taken away from it is that when you lose someone grief is a completely normal way to feel and I felt better talking about it."

Glennis Doherty is Vice Principal at St. Patrick's High School and says the project has had an immeasurable impact on the pupils that took part.

"It has really helped them understand that just like the seasons of the year, there are times when we all feel happy, confident and there are other times we experience conflict, anxiety and loss.

"So the project was a chance for them to explore those feelings in a safe space and develop the emotional skills to deal with them."

She says pupils have taken away the skills of "resilience and self-expression" and were using them beyond school.

"It has hopefully helped them realise that asking for help is a strength and not a weakness."

One of those behind the project is Dr Sinead Hannan, Assistant Head of Psychology Services at the Southern Trust.

She believes bereavement is a public health issue that isn't talked about enough.

"In the UK, the parent of a child who are under 18 dies every 22 minutes, and we know from research that 80% of children don't access psychological intervention whenever they need it.

"So this means often that children are grieving silently and sometimes on their own, and we know the early intervention around grief can change the trajectory of a child's life.

"We wanted to make a difference to a child's grief journey and that's where the project came from.

"The main thing we wanted from the project was peer connection, so if somebody is walking down the corridor, the children know they're not on their own and other people are experiencing grief just like they are."

As part of their final artwork project, students in St Patrick's worked with an artist on a large mixed-media collage that included a tree representing growth and a heart representing support.

The piece has now been given pride of place in the corridor beside the school's sensory garden.

Ailisha says the fact the artwork has been displayed in their school for other pupils to see is important.

"People might say it's just a picture, but every time I walk past, it makes me very proud, because it's part of my journey."

The Southern Trust said that subject to funding being made available, it would like to extend the Seasons of Life project into primary schools.