Grief: ‘School art project helped us understand our loss,’ say young people in Armagh

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.

She said: “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.”

She added: “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.”