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October 15 is the annual Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day which holds particular importance for bereaved parents. On this day, bereaved parents across the world light up candles to commemorate the loss of their child.
The Jockey Club Perinatal Bereavement Care Online Kick-off Ceremony cum Online Symposium was held today (October 15) to mark the official launch of the three-year pilot project “Jockey Club Perinatal Bereavement Care”. The Project, which is the first of its kind in Hong Kong, is funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, and jointly collaborated by the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Hong Kong Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Family Wellness Centre, and Caritas-Hong Kong Grace Port – Caritas Miscarriage Support Centre.
The opening remarks was given by the officiating guest, Dr Tony Pat-sing Ko, Chief Executive of Hospital Authority. It was followed by speeches delivered by Ms. Imelda Chan, Head of Charities (Healthy Community) of The Hong Kong Jockey Club; Dr. Celia Hoi-yan Chan, Principal Investigator of the Project, Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of HKU; Ms. Yvonne Yeung, Chief Executive of YWCA; and Ms. Eliza Lam, Service Head of Family Service of Caritas-Hong Kong. An online symposium on bereavement support in the community was held after the ceremony. Topics such as “the unmet needs and corresponding psychosocial support for individuals and couples at different stages of bereavement”; and types of support including “art-based bereavement support”, “acute bereavement support” and “multiple-contingent bereavement support” were discussed.
A website (https://www.jcperinatal-bc.hk/) has been launched under the Project. A virtual sky lantern memorabilia named “Lantern of Remembrance and Support” is designed for bereaved parents to honour their child. They can choose sky lanterns of different colours and write messages to their child, and release the virtual lanterns to express their thoughts for their child and support for fellow bereaved parents. In addition, the website complied videos of eight parents who went through pregnancy loss, including a mother who shared her experience of saying goodbye to five little angels, a bereaved father who dealt with his grief, a mother who shared her feelings when asked about her loss by her relatives. The “Family photo journal” section on the website allows bereaved parents, family and friends to experience a creative journey through sharing their stories with words and images.
The YWCA of Hong Kong provides a variety of support services through the Project, including 100-day acute support for parents who have just experienced pregnancy loss, post-miscarriage information and care services, acute short-term and online counselling, professional psychological counselling and follow-up visits by senior social workers, angel funeral boxset, art healing counselling group activities such as “Parent DIY” and “Memorial scapebooking”, spiritual sand art, spiritual writing and peer mutual help. For more details, please visit: https://fwcyyc.ywca.org.hk
Caritas-Hong Kong provides comprehensive, in-depth, and professional services through public education and activities, groupwork intervention and therapeutic casework intervention, to help bereaved parents transition through the grief and emotional distress brought by pregnancy loss; to rebuild their self-confidence; and to restore and enhance emotional and sexual intimacy in couple relationship. Participants could choose different services according to their needs, which include face-to-face/telephone/online support counselling, Trauma-informed Care and Practice (TICP), Integrative Family and System Treatment (I-FAST), sex counselling and therapy, and a variety of services to enhance mental toughness and resilience. For more details, please visit: https://fsgpmp.caritas.org.hk/
About Jockey Club Perinatal Bereavement Care
A pregnancy ended by miscarriage or stillbirth can be physically and emotionally distressing for couples. According to government statistics, there are about 8,000 pregnancy losses occur annually and one out of five pregnancies may end up in pregnancy loss in Hong Kong. Due to the sudden and unexpected nature of pregnancy loss, the process of grieving and coping with loss among bereaved couples is ambiguous. Bereaved couples tend to conceal their sadness as such experience is seldom acknowledged by the community.
The Jockey Club Perinatal Bereavement Care Project is funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and is jointly collaborated by the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Young Women’s Christian Association Family Wellness Centre, and Caritas-Hong Kong Grace Port-Caritas Miscarriage Support Centre.
The Project is a three-year pilot initiative aiming at providing holistic hospital-to-community psychological support for bereaved couples with pregnancy loss. Core elements of the project include public reproductive health education, competence training and e-learning materials for helping professionals, information provision and remembrance set for funeral arrangement, individual and couple counselling, and sex counselling and therapy. For more details, please visit: https://www.jcperinatal-bc.hk/
