'Art helped us understand our grief,' say young people experiencing loss
BBCTeenagers who have experienced loss have said creating art and talking to other young people has helped them process grief.
Niamh, who is 17 and a pupil at St Patrick's High School in Keady, County Armagh, lost her mother a few years ago.
She is one of about 100 school children who took part a project to help them deal with bereavement and loss.
Through storytelling and art, young people are encouraged to think about signs of grief with fellow pupils and are offered ways to cope with their feelings and experiences.
She said: "The whole experience just made me more comfortable to talk to others about grief and I built a lot of strong friendships from it.
"I think it has just helped make me a more resilient person overall and more comfortable with expressing my feelings."
Niamh said before the project she could feel alone in her grief and meeting other young people she could "relate to" had helped her understand her grief.
"Now you can see them around school, and they would know if you're not OK and come to talk to you, so that has been really nice."
The Seasons of Life workshops are run by the Southern Health and Social Care Trust and have been piloted at several schools in counties Armagh and Tyrone during the last year.
Joe is a year 10 pupil at St Patrick's who took part in the project after the loss of his aunt.
"I liked that you could talk about your feelings without anybody judging you", he said.
He added: "I never felt I had to worry about what I was saying, because other people taking part had also lost someone.
"I'm also really happy and proud of some of the art we produced together."
One of the projects involved students writing their loved ones' names on paper symbolising a leaf and hanging it on a tree they had made together.
St Patrick's pupil Ailicia, 17, recently lost her grandfather.
She says she found the project "healing" as it was close to the anniversary of his death.
She said: "Putting my grandad's name up on our tree felt quite comforting, and it gave me a sense of it being a special way to remember him.
"One of the big things I've taken away from it is that when you lose someone grief is a completely normal way to feel and I felt better talking about it."
Glennis Doherty is Vice Principal at St. Patrick's High School.
She said the Season's of Life project has had an immeasurable impact on the pupils that took part.
She said: "It has really helped them understand that just like the seasons of the year, there are times when we all feel happy, confident and there are other times we experience conflict, anxiety and loss
"So the project was a chance for them to explore those feelings in a safe space and develop the emotional skills to deal with them."
She said pupils had take away the skills of "resilience and self-expression" and were using them beyond school.
"It has hopefully helped them realise that asking for help is a strength and not a weakness."
The Seasons of Life workshops have been delivered in post-primary schools by a multi-disciplinary team, including specialist school nursing, paediatric psychology, the Southern Trust's bereavement co-ordinator and Cruse bereavement support services.
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."
As part of their final artwork project, students in St Patrick's Keady worked with an artist on a large mix media collage that included a tree representing growth and a heart representing support.
The piece has now been given pride of place in the corridors of St Patrick's High School in Keady beside the school's sensory garden.
Ailisha said the fact the artwork has been displayed in their school for other pupils to see is important.
She added: "People might say it's just a picture, but every time I walk past, it makes me very proud, because it's part of my journey."
The Southern Trust said that subject to funding being made available, it would like to extend the Seasons of Life project into primary schools.