PICTURES: Held In Our Hearts charity set to use support from hotels to reach out to more bereaved parents after official Highland launch
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A baby loss, counselling and support charity’s official Highland launch in Inverness heard how it plans to work with hotels to help reach out to more bereaved parents.
Held In Our Hearts has already been supported by the Glen Mhor Hotel in Inverness and the Crerar group of hotels to expand support into the Highlands.
NHS Highland now refers grieving parents seeking support directly to the charity for peer counselling.
The recent launch at the Glen Mhor by the River Ness was attended by more than 60 people, with parents among them highlighting just how important the counselling service has been.
The charity’s chief executive Nicola Welsh was delighted with how the launch went.
She said: “We had a mixture of health professionals, businesses and actually quite a number of families, including those who have been supported up to this point.
“There were good discussions with parents contributing a lot by giving an insight into what their care felt like.
“It was encouraging to hear praise of the peer support counsellors and the feeling was that without them they would have been on their own.
“It probably just cemented the relationships we have been building. The head of midwifery within NHS Highland was there and there will be a follow-up meeting arising from those discussions.
“We had delayed the launch from earlier in the year and that delay actually gave it the weight and authenticity that we’d hoped for.
“The priority for us now is to make sure that every health professional is aware of what we can offer and for us to continue to develop our hybrid way of working.”
The Glen Mhor Hotel provides space in its new Indigo Room for a counsellor to meet parents in privacy.
In February, the Crerar Trust donated £7500 towards an expansion of the charity’s services in the Highlands.
The CEO added: “We had a discussion around what we could do if there was a really distressed family who were looking to speak to somebody.
“As much as it wouldn’t become standard practice, we can look to use a hotel premises in whatever location is near to them to meet the family at a time when the trauma of loss can make it difficult to organise for travel and transport.
“By developing relationships with hotels, not only do we raise awareness further but we reach out to families who can meet somewhere that feels safe to them.
“Our whole ethos recognises that every community is different and every time we expand into a health board area, it is about working with the community to learn what their needs are.
“It won’t be the same for everywhere and a model that works in Lothian might not work for another community in the Highlands.”
