This Child Grief Week, The Archie Foundation is highlighting the incredible career and lifelong dedication to child bereavement services of Archie trustee and founding member of Archie’s Child Bereavement Service Anne Bone MBE.
Social worker, author, tearoom owner, trustee, mum, and grandma are just a few hats Anne Bone MBE has worn over the years, all while tirelessly dedicating her time to supporting children and families through their grief.
While working as a senior social worker in the Grampian region in the 1980s, Anne delivered support to children in care. In June 1988 a tragic incident on an unprecedented scale changed Anne’s personal career trajectory and life itself for thousands of families across the North-east.
Piper Alpha
The Piper Alpha disaster killed 167 people and injured a further 61 when the oil platform exploded in the North Sea, 120 miles from Aberdeen.
Anne said: “The day after the disaster I went in to work as we had set up a helpline for those affected. I didn’t apply for the job, on the Monday (five days after the disaster) my boss told me that senior management had decided to set up a team to provide support to the bereaved and survivors, and they wanted me to lead it….I asked him how long I had to decide and he said about 5 minutes. Two hours later I was in front of live TV news being interviewed, that’s how my children found out I had changed my job!”
She stayed in the role and provided bereavement counselling and support to families in the Grampian region and beyond until 1992 when she was offered the opportunity to work with the British Forces after the Gulf war. During her time in Munster, Germany Anne worked as a social worker providing soldiers with PTSD support.
After one year in Germany, Anne decided to return to Aberdeen and take up another social work role, but after 10 months she decided to open a village shop and tearoom in Ballogie.
“It was quite the u-turn!” recalls Ann. “The tearoom was a family affair. I made all the bakes, my son served in the shop and tearoom, and we worked there around the clock,” she said.
During that time Anne continued her work as a self-employed counsellor offering vital grief support to adults and children throughout Aberdeenshire.
It wasn’t long, however, before Anne’s calling came again and the family decided to give up the tearoom and shop in 1996 when she was invited to join an employee assistance programme (EAP) company in Aberdeen, working as a clinical manager providing grief support after major incidents across Scotland.
Anne continued: “Shortly after beginning the role in 1996, a tragedy took place at Dunblane Primary School, where 16 pupils and one teacher were shot dead and 15 injured. I was involved immediately as the EAP had contracts with various companies in Dunblane and it was about a week later when I was asked to be a Stirling council consultant, to set up a service to support the families and individuals affected.
When her contract in Dunblane concluded, Anne decided to set up her own business, providing support to those who have been affected by major incidents.
Anne said: “For a period I worked offshore, talking to staff about stress management and wellness. I could see for myself all of the major improvements that had been made to safety procedures on the rigs since Piper Alpha, and it felt like a full circle moment.”
The British Forces came calling for Anne’s services once more and she travelled to Germany to support soldiers and their families, but this was short-lived as Anne received the news that her first grandchild was on the way and decided to make the move back to Aberdeen to spend time with family.
During the next few years, Anne went on to work for the charity Childline and provide locum support at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, as well as writing two books while taking a sabbatical in Spain and returning back to Germany for another month with the British Forces.
It was during her time working for Aberdeenshire City Council as a Senior Social Worker that Anne first mused about creating a bereavement support service to help even more children who have experienced the death of a loved one.
“I brought together health visitors, social workers and charity workers to help set up Grampian Child Bereavement Network, which at first was just going to be a signposting service but we shortly realised that the support was very much needed and we decided to form a charity. We received £10,000 from the Lottery and employed our first part-time employee, Joyce Taylor. Astrid Whyte CEO (at the time) of Mental Health Aberdeen very kindly provided us with an office and over the course of the next few years we successfully grew the charity.”
“After a few years, we began to find it difficult to fund the service. One of our founding trustees James Falconer, Chaplin (at the time) at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, suggested we put in a funding application to The Archie Foundation to enable us to continue Joyce’s role, and it was accepted! This is something we have always been so incredibly grateful to Archie for.”
From then, the charity went from just listening and being there for families, to providing a bereavement book service, to hosting support and activity days for children, to then training other professionals and charities in best practices to support bereaved children.
In 2019 Grampian Child Bereavement Network disbanded and became part of The Archie Foundation. The service is now known and referred to as “Archie’s Child Bereavement Service”.
“Joining The Archie Foundation gave us stability, security and the potential to grow further than we ever thought possible. We have just recently extended the service into the Highlands and Tayside by hiring two new Bereavement Coordinators, which will enable us to support even more children and families who desperately need our support,” says Anne.
Anne has been a trustee of The Archie Foundation for the last three years and still plays a very active role in Archie’s Child Bereavement Service, chairing the service’s committee, providing bereavement training to health, social care and education professionals as well as training Archie’s team of bereavement responders who provide children with one on one support.
Anne also maintains her own case load, personally delivering support to children and families, something which continues to provide immense satisfaction and fulfilment for her.
If you would like to find out more about Archie’s Child Bereavement Service, please visit https://archie.org/bereavement/