Age UK: A Bereavement Support Guide

For the more information about Age UK Please go to their website.

Extract from the guide:

"This guide does not provide you with ‘counselling’ training: Bereavement counselling is a specialised type of counselling that involves supporting individuals who have experienced the loss of a loved one. This counselling helps them work through their grief as well as perhaps learn coping mechanisms to help them when they are on their own. Bereavement counselling is recommended for anyone, of any age, whose loss seems overwhelming or whose life is being adversely affected by their grief. You would be supporting anyone for whom this is the case to access their GP.

Rather, we hope that this guide offers some advice on what to say and what not to say as well as giving a brief overview of what the person you may be talking to will be going through.

“The most important thing you can do for a grieving person

…is to simply be there”

Late Spring Oxfordshire is a member of the Oxfordshire Bereavement Alliance and has been running support groups for all those aged 60+ who have been bereaved for 7 years here in Oxfordshire. Created and developed in 2013 they have proved to be a popular support for those who have been bereaved with a network of over 24 now running throughout the County. Support, advice and existing resources, which include a facilitators pack, bereavement training pack, guided session ideas as well as access to a friendly voice at the end of a phone who can talk through any aspect of having a conversation with a person who has been bereaved, can be accessed by contacting latespring@ageukoxfordshire.org.uk or phoning 01235 849 434"

For the full guide please download the attachment.

You may also be interested in:

• Bereavement support volunteers at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
• Dealing with traumatic bereavement
• Virtual hospice provided much needed support to children and families during Covid-19
• Podcast – How end-of-life volunteers can support patients post COVID-19 – An interview with Alex James, the founder of Bereavement UK