LITTLE ELEPHANT VISITS THE HOSPICE
The world’s first children’s book on hospice care
The story behind Little Elephant
When our Founder, Joe stepped into a Hospice for the first time at the age of 21, he realised everything we knew about Hospice care was wrong.
Conversations he overheard amongst family members of fear, were replaced with reality: the Hospice was a space of community, shared humanity, light airy family spaces, manicured gardens, comfortable family rooms, delicious cafes with tasty snacks and vibrant music and creative arts.
People living as comfortable as possible, sharing precious moments with those closest to them.
The realisation was profound, not speaking about death, dying and bereavement as children makes us fearful adults. The cycle continues unless we have the resources to facilitate these conversations.
He set out to design the world’s first children’s book explaining terminal illness, hospice care, death, dying and bereavement using accessible and truthful language.
Little Elephant is based on lived experience, written personally by Joe and led by the community Little Elephant seeks to help.
About the book
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The book follows Little Elephant’s journey into a Hospice with Big Elephant. It gently explains what the diagnosis of a terminal illness means, the role of a hospice and the community we meet along the way and what happens when we die. It explores what grief may feel like and how to process these difficult emotions.
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Little Elephant is for everyone! Whether a child, family member, child support worker or hospice professional this book is designed to be used in a flexible, approachable way for everyone.
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We recommend for the book to be used with children up to the ages of 12.
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The book is packed with fun activities and a range of emotional processing tools, including body mapping to help identify and process difficult feelings. Activities include opportunities to get to know the child’s loved one, hospice staff, fun games to play to pass the time and opportunities to create a memory book and colour in their very own Little Elephant.
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Using Elephants as our main characters allow children to adjust the relationship between Little and Big Elephant depending on their situation. Whether friend, family member or carer, we all have our Big Elephants!
Designed alongside leading professionals
Little Elephant Visits the Hospice was designed for the community by the community.
We worked with children, families, palliative care professionals, child psychologists and social workers from Hospices across the UK.
Bringing their ideas together, the book was written by our founder, Joe and animated by Get Better Books, specialists in children’s books for healthcare settings.
We made sure that Little Elephant’s journey represents the journey of all families navigating a diagnosis of a life limiting illness.
Child Bereavement UK Recommended
Little Elephant Visits the Hospice has been recommended by Child Bereavement UK, as an essential pre-bereavement resource.
Little Elephant is also used by Child Bereavement UK’s family supporter workers in conversation with children about life-limiting illness.
Little Elephant Visits the Hospice: A children’s activity, information and emotional processing tool designed with Palliative Care professionals and Child Psychologists to support children as they negotiate the palliative care system with their loved ones.
Little Elephant Visits the Hospice: A children’s activity, information and emotional processing tool designed with Palliative Care professionals and Child Psychologists to support children as they negotiate the palliative care system with their loved ones.
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