Friday, January 14, 2005
Bereavement services in the UK
Field David, Reid David, Payne Sheila, Relf Marilyn
Survey of UK hospice and specialist palliative care adult bereavement services
International Journal of Palliative Nursing 2004 v10 no12 p569-76
There is a great lack of research on bereavement services and this is a very welcome addition to the subject. It is based on a postal survey of UK hospice and specialist palliative care services providing adult bereavement support. 300 services were identified and there was an 83% response rate.
Most of the services were based in England and the most common professional qualification was in nursing with 39% reporting they had some kind of counselling qualification. Paid professionals involved in bereavement services were nurses (36%) and social workers/counsellors (46%). Volunteers were involved in over two-thirds of the services –paid staff alone in about one quarter of services and volunteers alone in 4%. There were questions about the number of volunteers involved and their contribution was regarded as important in many services. Numbers of volunteers are not given.
83% provided an induction programme for their volunteers. It was most common for induction programmes to last from 6-15 hours although their duration ranged from 1-5 hours to over 65 hours. Most workers had supervision but 12% of paid staff and 7% of voluntary staff did not. These figures particularly illustrate the huge range in the type and probably the quality of service.
There was also a great range in the duration of support given to users and formal risk bereavement tools were used in just under half of the organisations. This article is likely to give an accurate picture of the range of services – their great variation is obvious. There is a need for audit on these services but the second phase of this study will elicit the views of bereaved people themselves.
The article compared these services with similar ones in the US (from a US survey) and outlined NICE guidelines on the subject.
They identified 6 types of bereavement service activities – one-to-one support, telephone support, referral to other agencies, memorial, remembrance and anniversary services, written information and advice and drop-in support.
This is a useful paper on the variety of services provided by hospices in the area of bereavement care.
Survey of UK hospice and specialist palliative care adult bereavement services
International Journal of Palliative Nursing 2004 v10 no12 p569-76
There is a great lack of research on bereavement services and this is a very welcome addition to the subject. It is based on a postal survey of UK hospice and specialist palliative care services providing adult bereavement support. 300 services were identified and there was an 83% response rate.
Most of the services were based in England and the most common professional qualification was in nursing with 39% reporting they had some kind of counselling qualification. Paid professionals involved in bereavement services were nurses (36%) and social workers/counsellors (46%). Volunteers were involved in over two-thirds of the services –paid staff alone in about one quarter of services and volunteers alone in 4%. There were questions about the number of volunteers involved and their contribution was regarded as important in many services. Numbers of volunteers are not given.
83% provided an induction programme for their volunteers. It was most common for induction programmes to last from 6-15 hours although their duration ranged from 1-5 hours to over 65 hours. Most workers had supervision but 12% of paid staff and 7% of voluntary staff did not. These figures particularly illustrate the huge range in the type and probably the quality of service.
There was also a great range in the duration of support given to users and formal risk bereavement tools were used in just under half of the organisations. This article is likely to give an accurate picture of the range of services – their great variation is obvious. There is a need for audit on these services but the second phase of this study will elicit the views of bereaved people themselves.
The article compared these services with similar ones in the US (from a US survey) and outlined NICE guidelines on the subject.
They identified 6 types of bereavement service activities – one-to-one support, telephone support, referral to other agencies, memorial, remembrance and anniversary services, written information and advice and drop-in support.
This is a useful paper on the variety of services provided by hospices in the area of bereavement care.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
New publications on bereavement
I am the librarian at St Christopher's Hospice in South East London, UK
The hospice is the first of the modern hospices and it was founded by Dame Cicely Saunders .
The library has many resources on hospice and palliative care. Over 10,000 are catalogued and this includes books, journal articles and grey literature.
One of the strong points of the library is the material on bereavement. There are c30 subscriptions to journals on all aspects of palliative care, including 6 with a particular focus on bereavement.
There are also hundreds of books on bereavement in the library.
Any individual is welcome to contact me for information on bereavement. The database contains more than 1,000 references to articles, books, pamphlets and some unpublished material on bereavement, loss and grief issues in the stock of the library. It is aimed at those providing bereavement services but there is also material which would be useful to bereaved people.
Most people should be able to obtain references via their own libraries but we can supply articles for a charge. We lend books via other libraries.
The purpose of this blog is to publicise the new material on bereavement - as well as material available via links and some older material which is relevant
The plan is that is will be updated once a week
The hospice is the first of the modern hospices and it was founded by Dame Cicely Saunders .
The library has many resources on hospice and palliative care. Over 10,000 are catalogued and this includes books, journal articles and grey literature.
One of the strong points of the library is the material on bereavement. There are c30 subscriptions to journals on all aspects of palliative care, including 6 with a particular focus on bereavement.
There are also hundreds of books on bereavement in the library.
Any individual is welcome to contact me for information on bereavement. The database contains more than 1,000 references to articles, books, pamphlets and some unpublished material on bereavement, loss and grief issues in the stock of the library. It is aimed at those providing bereavement services but there is also material which would be useful to bereaved people.
Most people should be able to obtain references via their own libraries but we can supply articles for a charge. We lend books via other libraries.
The purpose of this blog is to publicise the new material on bereavement - as well as material available via links and some older material which is relevant
The plan is that is will be updated once a week
