‘No, you don’t know how we feel’

Abstract

Groupwork with bereaved children has become increasingly common, with closed and open groups, day and residential programmes, and even online chat rooms offering different approaches and purposes. However, working with children anticipating potential bereavement has received much less attention. Similarly, research within this area in palliative care has been notable for two things - its paucity and its failure to address the perspective of the children themselves.

As a palliative care social worker, whose remit was to support children whose parents were receiving palliative care, I searched unsuccessfully for research that was child-centred and child-friendly, and which would enable children to articulate their beliefs and experiences effectively. Thus, for my doctoral thesis, I turned to the action research paradigm for an approach that would more effectively engage with and illuminate these children’s experiences, and undertook a collaborative inquiry- where the research is conducted with rather than for, on, or about the participants – with nine children aged from seven to fifteen.

Collaborative inquiry raises - and challenges - many key issues in both research and groupwork, such as voice, power and identity, ethics and competence. This article addresses a number of these issues, with a particular focus on identity.