07/06/2025
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Supporting Children After Natural Disasters and Loss: A Guide for Caregivers ❤️🩹🌧️
As our Texas Hill Country community mourns the recent devastating floods near Kerrville, including the heartbreaking loss of children from Camp Mystic, many families are left navigating difficult conversations with their children. Whether your child was directly impacted or is simply trying to make sense of the tragedy, it's important to know how to support them through grief, fear, and confusion.
Here are a few key ways you can help your child cope after a natural disaster or loss:
1. ❤️ Reinforce Safety and Stability
Children look to the adults around them to know if they’re safe. Reassure your child that they are being cared for and that many helpers: rescue workers, doctors, and community leaders, are doing everything they can to keep everyone safe. Consistency in routines, even small ones like bedtime rituals or family meals, helps create a sense of security.
2. 🧠 Speak Simply and Honestly
Give children the facts in a developmentally appropriate way. Avoid unnecessary or graphic details. For example, you might say, “There was a big storm, and some people got hurt. Grownups are working hard to help everyone now.”
Encourage questions, but it’s okay if you don’t have all the answers. You can say, “That’s a really good question. I don’t know all the details, but I do know you are safe and we’re here together.”
3. 💬 Validate All Feelings
Children may show sadness, fear, anger, or even seem unaffected at times. All of these responses are normal. Let them know it’s okay to feel whatever they are feeling. You might say, “It’s okay to be scared or confused. I’m here, and we’ll get through this together.”
4. 🫂 Model Healthy Emotional Expression
It’s okay to share your own feelings with your child in a way that’s appropriate. Saying something like, “I feel really sad about what happened too,” models for your child that it’s okay to express emotions and to talk about them.
5. 🧸 Provide Comfort Through Connection
Sometimes children don't have the words to express what they’re feeling. Spend time doing quiet activities together (reading, drawing, playing) that allow for connection and emotional expression without pressure to talk.
Local Resources for Support ℹ️
If your child or family is in need of additional support, there are several wonderful organizations in the San Antonio and surrounding Hill Country area:
🔷 Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas
Offers grief counseling, support groups, and resources for children and families coping with loss.
https://cbcst.org
🔷 Clarity Child Guidance Center
Provides mental health services for children, including crisis care and therapy.
https://www.claritycgc.org | (210) 616-0300
🔷 Hill Country Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Centers
Serving Kerrville and surrounding areas with mental health services for children and adults.
https://www.hillcountry.org
🔷 The Ecumenical Center
Offers grief support and counseling for families in crisis.
https://www.ecrh.org | (210) 616-0885
🔷 Any Baby Can San Antonio
Provides family support and counseling, including parent coaching and mental health services for children.
https://www.anybabycansa.org
Tragedies like these impact us all. While we cannot shield our children from grief and hardship, we can walk beside them, offering our presence, our honesty, and our love. Healing takes time, but no one has to do it alone.
If you are a parent, teacher, or caregiver and need guidance on how to talk with your child or student, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Your child doesn’t need “fixing”, they need to feel seen, safe, and supported. ❤️🩹
Jacy Adams, LCSW, RPT
Licensed Child Therapist and Registered Play Therapist of Caring Hearts Therapy
