WATCH Sister Helen Culhane invites former Children’s Grief Centre users to share their stories

Sister Helen Culhane invites former Children’s Grief Centre users to share their stories. Sr Helen Culhane, founder of Children’s Grief Centre Limerick. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

Founder of Children’s Grief Centre, Sister Helen Culhane is inviting former service users to share their experiences as part of her book

Sister Helen Culhane, founder of the Children’s Grief Centre, is inviting former service users to share their experiences as part of a book she is writing to help capture the “important voices” of young men and women.

The Children’s Grief Centre, which opened in 2009, was established to support children affected by bereavement, parental separation, and divorce, and is now celebrating 17 years, with the centre supporting more than 100 children each week.

Speaking about the project, Sister Helen said writing a book has been a dream of hers for some time and believes it is important to capture the important voices and stories of the young men and women who have attended the Children’s Grief Centre.

advertisement
advertisement

advertisement
advertisement

advertisement
advertisement

advertisement
advertisement

Speaking with I Love Limerick, Sister Helen said, “ This is something that I dreamt of for a long time, about writing a book, because I have met a number of young men and women who attended the centre. I thought it would be wonderful and so important to get the feedback from the young people who attended as children.”

Sister Helen, who is retired now retired, hopes to hear from young adults who used the service over the years, and believes there is an opportunity to learn from their experiences, which could help others going through similar experiences.

She added, “ It would be so important to have the voices of the young men and women who attended the centre, and I think it will be a great learning for all of us.

“And I’m hoping this book will also help families and will help professionals who are working with bereaved children: what works, what’s important in the lives of when we are supporting children who are grieving. I couldn’t have done this without the support of the congregation, the wonderful volunteers, the wonderful staff.”

The Children’s Grief Centre is a non-government funded, free service and provides support to those who could not seek it otherwise. While the Children’s Grief Centre is running on a voluntary basis, they do require volunteers to have some form of training to be able to help and treat the children and young people availing of the service. Helen spoke about the services offered through the volunteer-run centre, the work they do, and why it is so essential to the community.

In 2007 while working with the Mercy Sisters, Sr Helen Culhane, who was announced the 2017 February Limerick Person of the Month, recognised that Limerick had the highest rates of marriage separation in Ireland, with little or no support services for children dealing with grief in its many forms.

Sr Helen gathered a group of professionals including a school principal, a family therapist and a GP, who met and were in discussions for over a year regarding setting up the Childrens Grief Centre. After these meetings, Sr Helen applied for a leave of absence from her position at Milford Hospice to continue her work and open the Childrens Grief Centre with the help of the Mercy Sisters.

Contact Sr Helen at [email protected] or text her at 085 7390963 to share your experience of the Children’s Grief Centre.