Supporting grieving parents

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GMCT’s children’s sections hold a precious space for our families and a special significance within our memorial parks.

The death of a child is devastating. The impact on parents, families and their communities is unfathomable and far-reaching. It is our privilege and responsibility to look after the children in our care and their loved ones.

Understanding Families’ Needs

In 2022, we started talking with families with children in our Henty B lawn section at Northern Memorial Park. We wanted to better understand families’ experiences of our spaces, processes and services so we can respectfully meet their needs and expectations.

Thirteen parents generously agreed to share their experiences of GMCT (and other death care services) in the context of their own grief journey. The knowledge that we gained about their personal approaches to loss, grief and memorialisation was invaluable.

Insights

Through our discussions we got a very real sense of the unique and varied ways that each family (even individuals within each family) navigated their grief. For example, some people enthusiastically mark significant events while others preferred discreet mementos that limit the visual impact on the natural elements of the site.

There is no right or wrong way to grieve. Nonetheless these differences highlight the need to delicately balance the provision of safe, accessible, inclusive sites for everyone while still supporting individual needs. For example, some parents supported a playground for siblings while others thought this would be disrespectful or force them to stay at the site for longer than they were comfortable.

Action and improvements

We were able to implement several suggestions and improvements immediately, like acknowledging and providing flowers on Mother’s Day or installing Christmas trees and chalk boards so that families could celebrate or write memorial messages. We are also collaborating with our operations and horticulture teams to develop new processes to better manage how we maintain our sites to a high standard with minimum impact on families. Signage will alert families of scheduled maintenance and outline the required access while also providing families with the opportunity to prepare their memorials a head of time. Internal guidelines will ensure that families receive consistent advice from GMCT staff about how they can memorialise their child's grave.

We are still working through the more complex findings to identify the best options and will pilot potential solutions as part of our ongoing community engagement.

Information and support

Our discussions with families identified an opportunity for GMCT to provide further information and support. We heard that the best time for us to contact families was around 6 months after their child was laid to rest. At this time, our customer care team will contact parents to check-in and send an information and support letter. This will include a brochure, developed using parent feedback, which outlines how GMCT cares for the children and maintains the site and recommends safe ways to personalise memorials.

We also heard that some parents were distressed when they received letters with GMCT branding. We have developed a new envelope in which to send our 6-month support outreach information.

We welcome further parent feedback on the timing, language and design of our outreach information (noting that we are governed by legislation that restricts the use of some types of memorialisation that can impact safety or the ability to maintain our sites). Please email us by 4 June 2023 to community@gmct.com.au with your comments and suggestions.

Next steps

Once we have taken in feedback on our letter and brochure, we will be creating informative signage to display on site and would welcome feedback. We are also keen to gauge the level of interest in herb or flower planter boxes to give families something to tend to or interact with on site.

Feedback

Please contact us at community@gmct.com.au if you would like to provide feedback about our draft outreach material or if you would like to be involved in future engagement projects.



GMCT’s children’s sections hold a precious space for our families and a special significance within our memorial parks.

The death of a child is devastating. The impact on parents, families and their communities is unfathomable and far-reaching. It is our privilege and responsibility to look after the children in our care and their loved ones.

Understanding Families’ Needs

In 2022, we started talking with families with children in our Henty B lawn section at Northern Memorial Park. We wanted to better understand families’ experiences of our spaces, processes and services so we can respectfully meet their needs and expectations.

Thirteen parents generously agreed to share their experiences of GMCT (and other death care services) in the context of their own grief journey. The knowledge that we gained about their personal approaches to loss, grief and memorialisation was invaluable.

Insights

Through our discussions we got a very real sense of the unique and varied ways that each family (even individuals within each family) navigated their grief. For example, some people enthusiastically mark significant events while others preferred discreet mementos that limit the visual impact on the natural elements of the site.

There is no right or wrong way to grieve. Nonetheless these differences highlight the need to delicately balance the provision of safe, accessible, inclusive sites for everyone while still supporting individual needs. For example, some parents supported a playground for siblings while others thought this would be disrespectful or force them to stay at the site for longer than they were comfortable.

Action and improvements

We were able to implement several suggestions and improvements immediately, like acknowledging and providing flowers on Mother’s Day or installing Christmas trees and chalk boards so that families could celebrate or write memorial messages. We are also collaborating with our operations and horticulture teams to develop new processes to better manage how we maintain our sites to a high standard with minimum impact on families. Signage will alert families of scheduled maintenance and outline the required access while also providing families with the opportunity to prepare their memorials a head of time. Internal guidelines will ensure that families receive consistent advice from GMCT staff about how they can memorialise their child's grave.

We are still working through the more complex findings to identify the best options and will pilot potential solutions as part of our ongoing community engagement.

Information and support

Our discussions with families identified an opportunity for GMCT to provide further information and support. We heard that the best time for us to contact families was around 6 months after their child was laid to rest. At this time, our customer care team will contact parents to check-in and send an information and support letter. This will include a brochure, developed using parent feedback, which outlines how GMCT cares for the children and maintains the site and recommends safe ways to personalise memorials.

We also heard that some parents were distressed when they received letters with GMCT branding. We have developed a new envelope in which to send our 6-month support outreach information.

We welcome further parent feedback on the timing, language and design of our outreach information (noting that we are governed by legislation that restricts the use of some types of memorialisation that can impact safety or the ability to maintain our sites). Please email us by 4 June 2023 to community@gmct.com.au with your comments and suggestions.

Next steps

Once we have taken in feedback on our letter and brochure, we will be creating informative signage to display on site and would welcome feedback. We are also keen to gauge the level of interest in herb or flower planter boxes to give families something to tend to or interact with on site.

Feedback

Please contact us at community@gmct.com.au if you would like to provide feedback about our draft outreach material or if you would like to be involved in future engagement projects.


Page last updated: 15 May 2023, 03:15 PM