As practitioners supporting children and families, we are closing out the month with an immense sense of grief and loss due to the incident in Uvalde. As professionals, we have been impacted in various ways by this event, and so have the families we are serving. Grief and loss is a significant part of life for every family, but is often a difficult area to approach for many professionals because many are not comfortable with the topic, or feel as though they may not have the resources to support families through the grief/loss process.

It is critical that we familiarize ourselves with both strategies and resources to support families during the grieving process due to the implications that the grief and loss process of the child and family can have on the nature of the child’s overall growth and development. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to work with each family within the context of Donald Winnicott’s framework, “there is no such thing as a baby, there is a baby and someone.” This reinforces our understanding as practitioners, that the relationship between the family and child are sacred and inseparable in nature. What the family experiences the child will experience as well. Helping families with challenges that they are facing with grief and loss will support the whole family and child in reaching positive outcomes in all the learning domains social-emotional, cognitive, and physical development. Below you can find additional resources for helping families:

Types of Grief: https://www.betterup.com/blog/types-of-grief

Helping Children Cope with Grief: https://childmind.org/guide/helping-children-cope-with-grief/

Helping Toddlers Cope with Grief: https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/3366-helping-your-toddler-cope-with-grief-and-death

Supporting Families and Young Children with gun violence: https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/4412-supporting-families-young-children-and-gun-violence

Full Circle Center: https://fullcirclegc.org/

Noah’s Children: https://www.noahschildren.org/

For questions about certification of practitioners, contact David Mills • 804-317-7776

For questions related to completing the online application, contact DBHDS Production Support@cov.virginia.gov