To Absent Friends Week 2020 – Apart Of Me

In 2018, in collaboration with The Greenock Youth Players, Ardgowan Hospice’s then Butterfly Service hosted a play in the Beacon Arts theatre. The play was a study into the power of words surrounding death in a young persons life. It featured real case studies, performed by actors, about how confusing and isolating a close death can be to a young person. Attendees included local teachers, politicians and a host of other child centric professionals.

The play has sparked important conversations about how childhood bereavement is handled within educational facilities in Inverclyde and beyond our borders.

We are therefore always keen to discover new tools that we can utilise to help young people navigate the difficult days, weeks, months and years following a bereavement.

One such tool is a wonderful game called Apart Of Me.

Apart From Me is a free, safe, engaging space that young people can play and explore in. The Apart From Me charity has an aim “to be your trusted guide through grief, helping you to explore, understand, accept and articulate your experience of grief and the wide range of emotions connected to it”.

The game is designed to help young people aged 11+ after the death of a parent, relative or someone important in their life and is available on iOS and Android devices.

If you know a young person who you feel could benefit from Apart From Me, or you are a young person reading this right now, please click here to learn more about the app.

The above link contains background information on the game, and importantly, the safety of using it along with evaluations of its success. Having read these we are comfortable sharing the game as part of our To Absent Friends week awareness campaign.

“A child loses a parent every 22 minutes in the UK.

Grief does not discriminate. Many young people face the tragedy of losing a loved one – yet they are often left out of conversations about death and grief. Not grieving fully or openly can put them at risk of facing further challenges later in life.

25% of under 20s who take their own life have experienced childhood bereavement.”

https://apartofme.app/