Bereavement Counselling

(asked on 9th January 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking with NHS England to (a) reduce variation in bereavement support and (b) improve the adequacy of provision of that support throughout England.


Answered by
Nadine Dorries Portrait
Nadine Dorries
This question was answered on 15th January 2020

We are working with the National Health Service to improve the quality and provision of bereavement counselling available across the country and reduce variation.

In 2017 the National Bereavement Alliance in partnership with Ambitions Partnership produced ‘A Guide to Commissioning Bereavement Services in England’ to highlight the importance of practical and emotional support and to support commissioners in the provision of effective practical and emotional bereavement support.

In 2018, ‘Learning from deaths: Guidance for NHS trusts on working with bereaved families and carers’, was published, providing advice to service providers regarding expected practice on how to engage, and work effectively with the bereaved following a death.

A children and young people’s palliative and end of life care service specification was developed in 2018 by NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with a range of stakeholders, to support improvements to services, care and experience. Work is underway to develop a national service specification for all aspects of end of life care covering community, hospital, hospice and tertiary care and which highlights the need for good bereavement and pre-bereavement care, including for children and young people.

Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care: A national framework for local action 2015-2020, published by the National Palliative and End of Life Care Partnership, presents a framework for local action based on collective experience and analysis of the many reviews and reports in this area. The framework looks at how variation in palliative and end of life care can be tackled and makes clear that good end of life care encompasses support to help bereaved people manage the impact of a loved one’s death, including their loss and grief.

Advice to people on coping with bereavement, grief and loss recommends that people should not think they are alone and try talking about their feelings to a friend, family member, health professional or counsellor. This is available on the NHS website at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/coping-with-bereavement/

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