BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT SERVICE

Providing the following services:

• Individual Support
• Introduction to mutual help groups for bereaved people
• Grief Resources
• Community Education

When someone close to us dies, it hurts. Even though we have said 'goodbye' at the funeral, we may find it difficult to cope with the way ahead once the busy time is over, and friends and relatives have returned to their everyday lives. It is at this point that grief may be felt most keenly.

For many years we have offered a Bereavement Support Service, through which we extend the care we give to the families we serve. This service is designed to offer support and assistance in adjusting to your new circumstances following a death. This support is available to any family member associated with a funeral we have conducted and is free of charge.

The help and assistance available from this service can be provided in a variety of ways; such as providing an opportunity to talk about your experience with a caring support person or giving you access to reading material or other resources which may be helpful.

We also work closely with the Grief Centre, a provider of more specialised services such as counselling for grief and loss, should additional help or support be required.

Support

Support in bereavement involves helping people adjust to their loss, and to experience the pain of grief in an atmosphere of friendliness and understanding. People are helped to find and use resources in their own community.

You may find it difficult to talk to your own family or friends, so to have a friendly "outsider", trained to listen and to help you find ways of coping with your feelings, can be very helpful - even months or years after the death of your loved one.

Please contact us if you are looking for this type of assistance.

Children and Grief

Children need to grieve, just as adults do, and their reaction to the death of a close relative or friend will vary from child to child. They may need help to cope with everything that is happening, and the Bereavement Support Service is available for them too.

Mutual Help Groups

People sometimes feel that only someone who has experienced a similar loss to theirs and has "been through it and survived" can really understand. There are many groups in the community where common thoughts and feelings can be expressed among people who have walked the same path.

We can put you in touch with an appropriate group.

Reading Material

You may not feel like reading much immediately after the death of someone close to you, but as time passes you may want to draw on others' accounts of how they managed in circumstances similar to yours.

There are leaflets available from our Bereavement Support Service which you may find helpful. We can also suggest other books and resource material which may be of use.

Community Education

Dil’s have been involved in education on grief, bereavement and funerals for many years. Talks have been given at schools, to church groups, caregivers, service clubs, social workers, medical professionals and the general public.

People who have attended these seminars have invariably come away feeling much more relaxed - and certainly better informed - about a subject (and life experience) that is often the source of anxiety or unhelpful myth.

If you or a group you have contact with would like to have someone talk to them, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Understanding Bereavement, Loss & Grief

Throughout our lives we experience losses of various kinds. Most of them are just part of day-to-day living; often we can replace the thing we have lost. We may feel sad for a time, but we adjust to the new situation and cope well.

But when someone we love dies, they can never be replaced. We lose not only their physical presence, but also their love and friendship. Our world may seem turned upside down. Our feelings may see-saw from shock and numbness to anger, disbelief, loneliness or even depression. Bereavement is the name given to this whole experience.

How we express our feelings - how we grieve - varies tremendously from person to person. We may cry, be silent, talkative or withdrawn. We may busy ourselves with a host of tasks and activities to help fill the gap; or we may go quietly about our lives as if nothing has happened.

Bereavement

Bereavement - is the name given to the experience we have when someone close to us dies. During the time of bereavement, which may be months or even years, we suffer all the pains of loss and grief.

We are all individuals and we all grieve in different ways. However, the services we offer may give you the opportunity to grieve naturally and not bottle up your feelings.

Loss

Loss - when someone close to us dies, we lose their love, their friendship and their physical presence. To be healthy, happy people again we have to acknowledge and accept this loss.

Although we do not have the physical presence of the person we have loved any more, we do have all the memories, photographs and mementoes of the times, places and things we shared together. These memories may at first be painful reminders of our loss, but in time can provide comfort.

Grief

Grief - is the way we express our loss and is made up of the many different feelings we experience when someone close to us dies. Medical specialists have told us that we may experience shock, numbness, disbelief, a feeling of "why me" or "surely not, it can't be true", anger, guilt, frustration, yearning, loneliness, depression and hopefully a gradual acceptance that there is nothing we can do to change what has happened.

Crying, feeling sad and talking about the person who has died are the most common ways we grieve.

For many people, talking about something we wish had not happened helps us to accept that it has happened. Therefore, in the days and weeks after the death if you want to cry, talk, or just have silent thoughts about the one you love, do so, don't be embarrassed, it is all right, it is normal behaviour.