It’s the club no parent wants to be a member of. The death of a child is nothing short of devastating, a catastrophic, life-changing experience. But the isolation that follows can make a horrible situation so much worse.
Once the connections with health services, care workers and funeral homes wrap up, parents are left with their grief as family and friends struggle with how to best offer support. And as time passes, often they are left alone and isolated.
It’s a scenario Wayne and Maree Pascoe are all too familiar with. After years of engaging with the Queensland health system to care for their profoundly disabled daughter Emma Louise, when she passed in 2014 at just 18, the family’s connection with healthcare workers wound up, ending relationships that had developed over years. Instead