The core aim of the survey was to gather information about the range of services/ supports that are available for bereaved children and their families in Ireland.
We know that there are limited numbers of dedicated childhood bereavement services so in order to gain a true reflection of the full range of supports available both of the following to were included;
- Services and supports that have bereavement as their core functions (e.g., Anam Cara, Barnardos Children’s Bereavement Service)
- Services and supports that are grief informed and/or offer bereavement support as part of a wider range of supports to families (e.g., Family Resource Centre, youth service, early years’ service, school, sports club)
The service information gathered will also help generate a national resource of support services for bereaved children and their families. Services were asked to consent to this use of their data.
Methodology
The survey was developed by ICBN with input from the Children and Young People’s Services Committees (CYPSC) representative on the ICBN advisory panel. Once finalised the survey was disseminated electronically using Survey Monkey.
It was distributed by CYPSCs to children and family services in their areas. We also circulated the survey to ICBN members and friends and posted it widely on social media. We advised interested parties that the survey would take approximately 15 minutes to complete, and we left the survey open from October 2022 and closed it in February 2023.
The results of the survey have been analysed internally by ICBN. Analysis involved generating the frequencies and percentage responses to each question and category. Open-ended responses were read and categorised into themes.
For the full report of the survey findings see here: ICBN National Survey Full Report 2023
For an executive summary see here: ICBN National Survey Executive Summary Report 2023
Organisations who participated and consented to sharing information Survey Respondents
**This list is in county order and only includes organisations (not private providers) who gave us written consent.**