Grief Support Guide Launch for National Grief Awareness Week
We all grieve differently and need to find the bereavement support that works for us. Sometimes we might prefer to talk to someone one-on-one, while at other times we turn to a bereaved support group or online community. We might want support that is tailored to our specific experiences or circumstances, or look for practical advice about funerals, administrative tasks and more. But it is often really difficult to find what we need – or even know what’s available.
Good Grief Festival was delighted to collaborate with Cardiff University, the University of Bristol, the National Bereavement Alliance, Marie Curie and Compassionate Cymru on the Grief Support Guide, a brand-new resource that and aims to help bereaved people find the support that suits them. We are really glad that the Guide is available in ten languages as we know that there are barriers to accessing support if your first language isn’t English.
The Guide signposts to a whole range of resources from self-help guides and community support to helplines and professional counselling. It also includes details of support for specific groups of bereaved people, such as widow(er)s, children, cultural and faith groups, and people bereaved by particular types of death. Some pages offer snapshots of bereaved peoples’ experiences of using different kinds of support. For example, a bereaved friend reflects that a bereavement helpline allowed them ‘to say it all aloud to someone and not worry about how it made them feel’. And a bereaved daughter comments that her Facebook group ‘made me feel less alone’.
Freely available on the National Bereavement Alliance website, the Guide allows readers to find support for themselves and other family members or friends. It could also be helpful to bereavement professionals, volunteers and other people or organisations that work with bereaved people.
Funded by an ESRC Impact Acceleration Award, the Guide brings together research findings on the benefits of different types of bereavement support and signposts to organisations in the UK. The Guide was developed through consultation with over 30 professional and public stakeholders and a focus group with bereaved people.
Join us to officially launch the Grief Support Guide online on Monday 4th December, from 1–2pm. Our panellists Dr Emily Harrop (Cardiff University), Dr Alison Penny (Childhood Bereavement Network), Amber Jeffrey (The Grief Gang) and facilitator Dr Lucy Selman (University of Bristol) will discuss the Guide’s development and how it can help us access the support that is right for us.
The event coincides with the UK National Grief Awareness Week (NGAW), run by the brilliant Good Grief Trust. Lasting from Saturday 2nd to Friday 8th December, NGAW 2023 centres on the theme #BetterTogether and invites people to organise a coffee morning to build community and spread the word about bereavement services across the UK. The NGAW 2023 website is selling café packs which contain bunting to promote bereavement services, charities and organisations to the public and other professionals – as well as cake flags, posters, balloons and even tea bags! The campaign aims to increase awareness of bereavement support options and foster supportive conversations about death, dying and grief. We are delighted to be part of this mission.
View the Grief Support Guide on the National Bereavement Alliance website: https://nationalbereavementalliance.org.uk/support
Find out more and register for the free Good Grief Festival launch here: www.goodgrieffest.com/events/grief-support-guide-launch
Learn more about National Grief Awareness Week (and buy a café pack!) here: www.thegoodgrieftrust.org/ngaw