News Archive

September 2011

Grief, Loss and Bereavement: Evidence and Practice for Helath and Social Care Practitioners by Peter wimpenny and John Costello has been published by Routledge. 

Henk Schut (Utrecht University) writes: 'Everyone who is interested in grief and bereavement care can find solid evidence based information on almost every topic that is explored. A valuable addition to the grief and bereavement library of every health and social care professional.'  and Sheila Payne from Lancast University writes: 'Wow! What a book! This is a gem for all health and social care professionals with any involvement in bereavement support work.'

Coordinator's Toolkit:

A list of resources which may be sueful to Bereavement Service Coordinators has been drawn together and is posted on the SBC coordinator's area. 

August 2011

Talking about end of life choices with people who are homeless - is one of two new leaflets from the Dying Matters Coalition and St Mungo's Palliative Care Project.  You can download it here. 

We're living well, but dying matters - is a short film produced by CHANGE for the Dying Matters and the End of Life Care Programme in England about including people with learning difficulties in discussions about death, dying and bereavement.   More details here 

July 2011 

When Someone Has Died

The new NHS Scotland publication is now being introduced into nearly all the NHS Boards across Scotland.  This new national resource will be used in Ayrshire & Arran, Borders, Fife, Forth Valley, Golden Jubilee, Grampian, Highland, Lothian, Orkney, Shetland, Tayside and the Western Isles.   

HRIS has published the information on their website in a number of formats: audio (English), large print and dual translations in Arabic, Chinese (Traditional), Polish and Urdu. You can also download the print files here 

SGHD funded an initial print run and coordinated the distribution for this.   Additional copies are available from Scottish Government. 

NHS Inform - There is a piece of work going forward to develop a Bereavement Zone in NHS Inform.  This will inlcude infomration about a range of issues aroound bereavement, and links to a variety of resources.  If you are interested in helping with this work please contact John Birrell

Diary Date - Shaping and Sharing Bereavement Care - the opportunity to hear about how the SBC Small grants have been used and to learn from the various projects.  Edinburgh 8 December 2011.  More information to follow, but get the date in your diary now.

A Scottish Bereavement Community - Please go to the discussions area on this site to join in a discussion about the development of the Scottish bereavement community.

End of Life Care Programme - The June newsletter from the End of Life Care Programme contains some interesting articles on bereavement and on mortuary viewing. Click here

Dying Matters - Three pieces of news from the Dying Matters alliance in England:

An online  community for anyone with personal or professional interest in death, dying and bereavement.

A community pack offering information and advice on how individuals and groups can encourage more talk about death dying and bereavement.

Dying for a laugh - a short film featuring well-known comedians joking, reflecting and ultimately considering their own deaths.  Intended to encourage others to talk more openly and more often about death.

23 May 2011 New publications:

The Royal College of Nursing has published Spirituality in Nursing: a pocket guide to help nurisng staff address questions of spiritual care. 

Cruse Bereavement Care Scotland has published Time with the Children, a leaflet for adults supporting bereaved children.  This is a companion to the children's leaflet The Little Book of Loss.  Both are available from CBCS

Cruse Bereavement Care has published two new collections from Bereavement Care: Best of Bereavement Care 2009/2010 and Best of Bereavement Care: Effective interventions with bereaved people. Available from the Cruse bookshop

3 May When Someone Has Died

The new NHS Scotland Booklet has been finalised and has been accredited by the Plain Language Commission.  It is now at the printers!  All but two territorial boards have ordered this folder and booklet.  A Questions and Answers guide has been prepared to help Boards prepare to introduce the new publication, and this has been sent to all Boards.   Copies of When Someone Has Died will be delivered to Boards in the week commencing 23 May.

20 April 2011

Guidance for staff responsible for care after death

A new publication from the National End of Life Care Programme in England makes good reading, and relates to many of the issues raised in Chapter 2 of Shaping Bereavement Care.  You can access the document by clicking here  The guidance emphasises that the care extends well beyond physically preparing the body for transfer either to the mortuary or funeral director and suggests that the care includes:

• Ensuring that the deceased and their family/carers have their privacy and dignity respected at all times

• Honouring the spiritual and cultural wishes of the deceased person and their family/carers

• Honouring people’s wishes for organ and tissue donation

• Ensuring the health and safety of everyone who comes into contact with the body

• Ensuring that if the death is being referred to the coroner no action is taken which might impede establishing the cause of death

• Ensuring correct certification procedures have been followed

• Care after death can be made less stressful by discussions while the patient is still alive around issues such as organ donation and cultural attitudes towards death.

New Bereavement Service from DWP

At the time of death, over 80% of people are on a DWP benefit or pension, and of those, over 60% are in receipt of more than one benefit from the Department.

This new service collects all the information the DWP needs to know about the deceased, carries out a quick eligibility check to find out which benefits the surviving relative may be entitled to and takes claims for Bereavement Benefit and Social Fund Funeral Payments over the telephone.

Read more about this service by clilcking here

04 April 2011

The pages on Roll Out of Shaping Bereavement Care have been updated to offer links to the Small Grants Scheme and the new National Bereavement Foilder.  Go to the SBC Tab and select Rollout and Updates or click here.

The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care has taken the initiative, based on the Living and Dying Well short life working group 7 report, to develop an alliance to encourage more open discussion of issues around death, dying and bereavement.  The steering group has had a first meeting, and more information should be available shortly.

Cruse Bereavement Care Scotland has been awarded a grant by Scottish Government to develop e-learning courses in line with Shaping Bereavement Care.  More on these later, but the first (core) level course should be available in the autumn.