One thing is certain - change and loss will always permeate life’s journey. From expected changes, like school transitions, welcoming new siblings or moving house, to those that can be more soul-rocking, such as parental or family separation, out-of-home care, or the death of someone we love, change and loss are experiences we all must navigate at different times throughout life.

Read the full story by MacKillop Seasons, who are a partner for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Conference 2025, put on by the Australian & New Zealand Mental Health Association.

Over the last few years, it has felt as though change and loss have been happening more intensely and extensively for young people in Australia. The Covid-19 lockdowns brought unprecedented disruptions to the schooling of every student in Australia. Not only that, overnight disruption impacted almost every other sphere of family life - work, travel and play - with financial, relational and social impacts for young people. Research suggests that, overall, Australian students have weathered the disruptions academically, but there have been significant impacts on wellbeing.¹

Immediately before and after the pandemic, thousands of Australian families also experienced devastating fires and floods in their communities. For these families, in addition to direct losses, such as loss of home, possessions, pets or even loved ones, young people experienced many secondary losses, such as moving communities or schools, or adapting to changed care arrangements or financial circumstances. Much less acknowledged is the loss of powerful associated ideas, including the loss of sense of stability and safety, belonging, home, family, identity, personal capacity and hope. For First Nations young people whose communities are often amongst those most impacted by natural and community disasters, such recent events compound existing intergenerational traumas and losses.

Grief is the natural and normal reaction to major change and loss in our lives. While it is not often recognised beyond bereavement, grief may be experienced following a wide range of losses, such as parental separation and divorce, natural disaster, homelessness, migration, out-of-home transitions, major injury, illness or accident, or the loss of long-held dreams or expectations. Grief is a complex emotional response, encompassing a wide range of feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. It is a process that allows us to come to terms with and adapt following loss, but unfolds in uniquely personal ways for each of us, as well as ebbing and flowing over time with new circumstances and milestones.

First Nations peoples have thousands of years of experience in supporting families and communities with grief following sorry business (bereavement). Across communities there are a diverse range of mourning-related ceremonies (practices and protocols), which over time, can offer social support and social acceptance of grief. Yet, in Australian society more broadly, there is considerable social discomfort around loss and grief, even following bereavement. At school, bereaved young people can feel like a peer-group exhibit, pitied, teased or expected to act out - and their loss becomes their defining feature. Young people can find that peers and adults treat them differently or avoid them, unsure of what to say, how to interact and whether and how to offer support. With losses beyond bereavement, the social awkwardness can be somewhat similar, although with much less recognition for the associated grief, leading to an experience termed ‘disenfranchised grief’. In all circumstances, grief takes time, something we are not always willing to accord within the busyness of modern life. Therefore, after a few weeks, grief is often increasingly consciously or subconsciously moved out of sight.

Following community disaster events, such as natural disasters, there can be a greater sense of a shared experience, which perhaps contributes to the resilience often seen in young people in the initial aftermath. Yet, families are impacted differently and the strain and fatigue of on-going adaptation, the lengthy rebuild process and the loss of community resources can mean that the impact of natural disasters on wellbeing often surfaces several months later. This can leave young people feeling disconnected and disorientated in their loss and grief.

It is important to reiterate at this point that grief is a natural process, it is not, in and of itself, a mental health illness. However, it can be mis-recognised as a range of mental health issues, particularly in situations beyond bereavement, or when a central major change or loss is not clearly identifiable. In addition, the emotional overwhelm, the isolation and time pressures surrounding grief can mean that grief becomes a precursor to mental health difficulties for young people, with evidence linking unresolved grief from recent or historical losses to suicide risk for some young people.²

Such links to mental health concerns should not be taken lightly. Over recent years, there have been concerning and on-going upward trends in rates of self-harm, mental health disorders and suicide attempts amongst children and young people across Australia. For instance, research in NSW has shown that the rate for self-harm and suicidal ideation presentations amongst young people rose by 19.2% during the pandemic in 2020-21.³ This was primarily accounted for by females aged 13-17, often from socially-advantaged urban areas, for whom presentations increased by 47.1%. Death by suicide also continues to be a leading cause of death for young people, with First Nations young people being at particularly high risk.

As a key part of the community, schools are uniquely placed to support children and their families in times of crisis, helping to reinforce mental health, resilience and wellbeing. Considering the above statistics, there are increasing calls for social and emotional learning for young people in schools. Given the kinds of family losses that can be experienced throughout childhood, added to lately by recent community-wide events, one starting point is to better acknowledge and normalise grief. For young people experiencing major losses, often just naming their experience as grief offers a sense of relief and goes some way to reducing the overwhelm and emotional distress.

Young people also value strengths-based educational approaches to help them understand grief and make sense of what they are experiencing, including opportunities to learn and develop skills and strategies to cope with difficult emotions and associated reactions.⁴ Providing timely support for young people journeying through loss and grief, offers upstream protection against mental health issues, including potentially suicide.⁵

For nearly 30 years, our work in the suite of evidence-informed Seasons for Growth loss and grief education programs has focused on providing such support.^6,7 Taking a strengths-based approach, relationships and belonging are central. Trained adult facilitators provide a safe, respectful learning space by ‘companioning’ small groups of similarly aged participants with experiences of various losses in an atmosphere of mutual support and peer learning. This helps participants to understand that change, loss and grief are part of life, that they are not the ‘only one’ to feel as they do. They learn skills for coping with feelings and emotions, setting goals, making good choices, building connections and reaching out for support, thus reducing loneliness and risk of cognitive distortion while strengthening trust and belongingness. The richness of the seasonal metaphor provides a language for participants to connect to their own experiences and understand that change is part of life. It helps shift their focus from the pain of what they can’t change or influence to the hope and strength in what they can, and who/what they need to support them.

The MacKillop Seasons suite includes the following programs:

• Seasons for Growth Children and Young People’s Program (3rd Edition)
• Stormbirds: Growing Through Natural Disaster (a program for children) (2nd
  Edition)
• Seasons for Growth Adult Program
• Seasons for Growth Parent Program
  • -Component 1: Supporting your child following the death of someone they love
  • -Component 2: Supporting your child following separation or divorce
  • - Component 3: Supporting young people following loss by suicide in the community
• Seasons for Healing (a program for First Nations
  Adults)
  
  

Heartfelt reflections on the role the programs have played in supporting child and school resilience and recovery following natural disasters have recently been captured from Eugowra, East Gippsland and Lismore.

In addition, MacKillop Seasons has recently added the Keeping Spirit Strong resources to support trained program facilitators (Companions) and local communities to culturally-enrich the Seasons for Growth Children and Young People’s Program in locally-relevant ways. The aim is to strengthen opportunities for cultural connection, honour cultural wisdom, and support a strong sense of identity and pride. Aspects of First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing, and caring for Country, are open to all Australians, grounding us following loss and uniting us as we meet the ecological, social and environmental challenges of our time. With natural disasters an on-going feature of life, the culturally-enriched Seasons for Growth learning experience is enhancing the ability of all to participate positively in the evolving history of Australia and contribute towards individual healing and community reconciliation.

MacKillop Seasons are a partner for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Conference 2025, put on by the Australian & New Zealand Mental Health Association.