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Family Support & Bereavement Service

Historically, the Pre and Post Bereavement Service has been totally funded by Duchess of Kent House Charity for many years to cover patients and relatives in the Greater Reading area. Since the end of 2007, the two local companion charities, Newbury & District Cancer Care Trust and Wokingham Cancer Care Trust have joined in the funding to extend the service to those living in their areas. The service has thus been expanded to offer a re-active post bereavement service across the directorate (all of west and central Berkshire) for families of patients who die elsewhere to Duchess of Kent House.

During the last financial year, the service has been managed and co-ordinated by two family Support Co-ordinators, Jackie Dearden (full time) and Liz Bannell (part time), and 14 trained bereavement volunteer visitors and 2 counselling supervisors.

Aims of the Service

  • To enhance the holistic care provided by each of the three constituent parts of the service at Reading, Wokingham and Newbury, whilst working collaboratively with the chaplain and psychologists (also funded by the charities) and the wider multi-disciplinary team.
  • To provide a safe, non-judgmental environment for adults and children to explore and express their emotions and feelings around the impact of serious illness and death, with th aim of reducing psychological distress and improving overall quality of life
  • To help individuals’ understanding of the process of illness, death and grief and its effects, including decision-making and to facilitate communication within the family
  • To help individuals realise their personal goals and aid them to make their own decisions with the context of the family.

Activity

During the 12 months of financial year 2008 - 9, 270 visits were made by paid staff on pre-bereavement referrals; 277 on post-bereavement referrals plus 87 by trained volunteers. Also 792 phone contacts were made. With post- bereavement referrals, this equates geographically to:

Reading 34%, Wokingham, 24%, Newbury 13% and other areas 29%.

The group service activities such as ‘Family & Friends Afternoons’, held quarterly are becoming ever more popular.

In the current financial year plans including a new drop in service for the bereaved, additional staff training, updates of literature, and establishment and / or development of collaboration with Macmillan staff, nursing homes, GP’s, School Nurses, District Nurses, and Thames Valley Cancer Network. This summer, the service is setting up a Bereavement Support Group which is for relatives/ carers of patients who died outside of Duchess of Kent House, but who were cared for within the Specialist Palliative Care Directorate. This autumn the first closed group of 8 -10 will meet at Purley Barn, Purley.