Children's Healing and Therapeutic Support (CHATS) Team

The Children’s Healing and Therapeutic Support (CHATS) Team at Birmingham Hospice provide confidential emotional support for children and young people when a loved one is poorly or if they have died.

Our Children’s Therapeutic Practitioners Samantha Kelly, Sally Roberts, Karen Ward and Mausumi ‘Mo’ Sasaru form the CHATS Team.

What support is available?

 

We offer one-to-one sessions with children and young people to help them explore and express their feelings. We have a designated Children’s Room at our Selly Park site for the sessions and, where appropriate, we also offer home and school visits.

We run support groups for children, young people and families who have loved ones receiving care from the charity. This provides an opportunity for both you and your child to experience peer support and talk to others who are in similar situations.

The team can support and guide you in how and when to talk to children, offering strategies to enable better communication within families. We can also speak to other adults and professionals in the child’s life either over the phone or face-to-face.

Much of the work they do is upskilling and supporting school staff to ensure your child is well supported during this difficult time.

The CHATS Team can also help you access support from other teams in the charity if you are struggling.

CHATS specialises in both pre- and post-bereavement support which means we only work with issues related to this. If your child has additional support needs, we will happily signpost and try to refer them to the relevant agency that may be able to provide appropriate support.

If you would like to find out more about how the CHATS Team can support you, please contact them directly:

Call: 0121 269 5000

Email: hcp.childrensservice@nhs.net

Members of our CHATS Team share their expertise on how to support young people during bereavement.