In the UK a child loses a parent every 22 minutes.
Many young people will face the tragedy of losing a loved one - yet they are often left out of conversations about death and grief. We know that by not grieving fully or openly that this grief threatens to transmute into lifelong problems such as anxiety, depression, offending behaviour, eating disorders, self harm, even suicide.
Unfortunately grief counselling is expensive, not appealing or available to a lot of young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
This is why we created Apart of Me - a world's first therapeutic game for bereaved young people. The game based on our innovative clinical framework aiming to help young people transform grief into compassion. It has been co-designed by grief experts and bereaved young people to provide:
- An accessible, engaging, safe space for bereaved young people
- A place where young people can understand their grief and at a pace that suits them
- Exercises to help build habits of self compassion
- Learning about transforming grief into compassionate action
We have had overwhelming feedback since the launch, with young people telling us it has "restored their faith in humanity" and professionals who support young people using the app with them. We are accredited by ORCHA, endorsed by numerous child bereavement charities, and won multiple awards.
Apart of Me launched in 2018 and has reached over 90,000 young people across the globe. Since then, the game has been translated in 3 other languages enabling more young people to make use of the service.
Recently we have received our charitable status, whilst developing our compassion framework and understanding the increased need for our service due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our next steps will focus on developing the game to help prevent the rising grief pandemic, and reduce the risk of complicated grief that have been exacerbated by Covid-19. Risks such as:
- Loneliness; by encouraging safe player interaction within the game
- Feelings of hopelessness; through building healthy habits of self compassion
- Anxiety & poor mental health; by improving the understanding of grief
Apart of Me is freely available to download wherever you are in the world from both the iOS App Store and on Google Play.
We would also welcome enquiries from schools, youth groups and other partner organisations to discuss how the game can be used with young people in your care, in your specific context. For more information please contact Louis@Apartofme.app
