Bereaved teen’s idea creates Finland’s first peer-support group

A 15-year-old’s idea has led to Finland’s first peer-support group for young people who have lost a parent, Yle reports. The group meets in Seinäjoki and is open to secondary-school-age teenagers and older.

Kristiina’s father died about two years ago. He was diagnosed with cancer when she was 10, but after his death she was not ready to talk about it with people outside her family. As she grew older, she wanted to speak with other young people who had been through the same experience, but found no one in her own circle.

“There’s practically no one. I’m completely alone. That’s where the idea came from,” she said. Kristiina hopes the group will offer support and help her make new friends. Yle is withholding her surname to protect her privacy.

The group is the first established by the Nuoret lesket association for young people, and the first of its kind in Finland. It is free, requires no association membership or advance registration, and meets once a month at a youth centre in Seinäjoki. Participants can talk, listen quietly, play games, do relaxation exercises or cook sausages.

Johanna Hänninen, who lost her spouse a year and a half ago, will lead the group. She saw the need for peer support among the four teenagers in her family after the deaths of their stepfather and father. She wants the group to be a place of enjoyment and wellbeing, not only a place to discuss grief.

Research manager Birgitta Tetri of Laurea University of Applied Sciences’ Centre for Experience Knowledge said there was a strong need for support specifically for young people, particularly teenagers. Young people may take on responsibilities at home and try to support a parent, leaving them less likely to share their own worries. A peer group can give them a place to talk and find support, Tetri said. She added that group leaders should have training in lived-experience expertise.