The FOOTPRINTS Service provides outreach from the PICU designed to support your transition from hospital to home. Please note that the FOOTPRINTS Service is not a professional grief counselling or crisis support service.
FOOTPRINTS Team members at each site devote one day per week to bereavement outreach, and have variable availability to respond to questions and contact outside these hours within their other PICU roles.
For urgent matters please see our Services page where we have listed some 24/7 supports that might be helpful.
THE SERVICE
FOOTPRINTS SERVICE
We are offering the FOOTPRINTS Service to bereaved families who are not already receiving support from another team such as palliative care. Our support is for close family members including mothers, fathers, parents, carers, grandparents and other close relatives.
We are offering this support as part of a research project so that we can understand whether bereavement outreach from the PICU can help families in their grief.
It is not necessary to complete the research surveys to receive the service.
The FOOTPRINTS Service involves support from a nurse and social worker linked to the PICU. The FOOTPRINTS team are available to answer questions and provide advice about bereavement, as well as reaching out at regular time points along each family’s grief journey.
FOOTPRINTS TEAM
The FOOTPRINTS team includes a nurse and a social worker linked to the PICU.
FOOTPRINTS Nurse
The FOOTPRINTS nurse can help you with aspects of bereavement that relate to your child’s clinical care. They can listen to your questions about what happened in the PICU and may be able to provide answers or link you with the professionals who were involved. The FOOTPRINTS nurse can also help you stay connected with the PICU if this is meaningful for your family.
FOOTPRINTS Social Worker
The FOOTPRINTS social worker can provide advice and support on many aspects of bereavement including practical, financial and emotional needs. They can help prepare you for challenges that grief may bring, and can help you connect with relevant services in the community that may support your grief journey.
CONTACT POINTS
The FOOTPRINTS Service offers five scheduled contact points adaptable to the preferences of your family. We can reach out individually to each member of your family who would like support.
In Hospital
We hope to meet you and let you know we are here to support your bereavement. We can help to prepare you for leaving hospital and some of the emotions and experiences you may face.
One Week
We plan to reach out to support you in the early days of your bereavement. We can provide advice and practical assistance for grief challenges as well as viewing your child in the hospital mortuary and funeral arrangements.
Three Months
We plan to reach out to you and ask in more detail how you are coping and what support you might need. We can help to arrange a family meeting with your medical team and a debrief about your child’s time in PICU. We can also help you to link in with community services, and provide specific resources depending on your family’s needs.
Six Months
We plan to follow-up to ask how you are going and whether you have the supports you need. You might like more contact from us or less depending on your grief journey.
Thirteen Months
We conclude our service and offer some resources for the longer term as well as a gift of remembrance to honour your child.
WHY RESEARCH?
The bereavement needs of families who experience the sudden and unexpected death of a child in a PICU are not well understood.
To better support you and other families in the future we are collecting data about The FOOTPRINTS Service and how it is delivered.
All families who receive the service will have data recorded about things like how many times we reached out and whether the community supports we recommended were helpful.
We are also offering the option to complete a research survey at the conclusion of the service.
This survey will ask about grief intensity, symptoms of post traumatic stress, and family functioning. We will compare these measures with surveys completed by families who endured an unexpected bereavement before we were able to offer the FOOTPRINTS Service. These measures can help to show whether bereavement outreach such as the FOOTPRINTS Service actually helps families in their grief.
