LAST year, Rochedale South residents Ben and Bonnie Stuart endured the unexpected death of their eldest son, Ezekiel.
Only fifteen months later, the couple will honour their son and bravely share their ongoing experience with grief as guest speakers at the Ladybird Care Foundation’s annual gala dinner.
Ladybird Care, based out of Woodridge, provides support for parents who have experienced the death of a child. A peer mentorship program run by the foundation provides direct support from other parents with similar lived experiences, general manager of the foundation, Wendy Collins, said.
The mentorship’s pilot program, which recruited and trained peer mentors who had also experienced the death of a child at least two years ago, was established at Queensland Children’s Hospital in 2020.
In late 2022, the board of directors expanded the program to reach bereaved parents on a national scale, and expanded the program to include parents who have experienced the death of a child 18 years or older.
“Rather than just find one position in one hospital in one city, we want to make it available much more widely,” Ms Collins said.
Mentors in the peer mentorship program are trained and supported by foundation staff and health care professionals.
“We recruit parents who are a little bit further in that grief journey, to walk alongside or support more ‘newly’ bereaved parents,” Ms Collins said.
“We make sure that they’re first of all suitable for that role, because we don’t want to do any more harm to them, to the parents.
“Then we provide training and then ongoing support of that relationship as they support other parents.”
When matching mentor and mentee, the foundation considered factors like the age or cause of death of the child and the family’s cultural or faith background to ensure the support can be delivered effectively.
“[In the peer mentorship program] you’re building a trusted relationship with another parent who’s walked this journey, which is, which is lovely, because then they don’t have to retell the story,” Ms Collins said. “They just pick up where they’ve left off.
“It’s usually about an 18-month one-on-one peer mentoring relationship.”
After the death of their 18-year-old daughter Emma – nicknamed “Ladybird” – Wayne and Maree Pascoe founded the foundation to provide bereavement support for parents.
Ms Collins said the foundation’s annual gala dinner was just one of the ways they provide support to parents.
This year’s ‘Flourish’ gala dinner will be held on 23 August at Brisbane City Hall and provides an opportunity for the foundation to raise funds, awareness, and support for parents grieving a child.
