STAKEHOLDER EVENTS BUILD UP A KNOWLEDGE BASE
Two stakeholder events were held for the Bereavement Pathways Project - in London and Birmingham, both with about 50 participants attending from all sectors relating to bereavement care and bereavement services.
The events featured a specially designed visual to illustrate a typical bereavement pathway, which provided a focus for debate and discussion at workshops.
Both days opened with an overview of the project from Debbie Kerslake, Head of Service Development and Planning for Cruse, and Tony Brookes, Chair of the Bereavement Services Association.
LONDON
The plenary speaker for the London event was Dr Colin Murray Parkes, OBE MD DPM FRCPsych and author. He is also Life President of Cruse. He opened his talk by saying: "We must always remember that not everyone needs help. I was a little bit worried about the pathway, that everyone would end up with Cruse! I am not an organisation man but I have an interest in evidence, in research in bereavement, and there is a lot of it. Although a lot of the ‘new’ knowledge is not new at all, there are also some fascinating new developments.
"I want to focus down on some of the areas around assessment of people’s needs and how we can begin to meet these needs, matching the limited resources at our disposal."
You can read the presentation here.
BIRMINGHAM
Key speaker in Birmingham was Pauline Smith, Clinical Lead for End of Life Care at West Midlands Strategic Health Authority. She opened by saying how pleased she was to be supporting the work - a three-year partnership project between Cruse Bereavement Care and the Bereavement Services Association. Pauline, in her postion with the SHA, is contributing to Lord Darzi’s End of Life Care vision for the NHS, due to be published summer 2008.
“The pathway resonates with me on a personal level,” she told the delegates. “The impact of loss is one of the life events; it is part of being human and living in communities and society. Bereavement care should be part of the natural cycle of life and living. Education should have the ‘Life Journey’, to include loss and how we manage it.”
Both days involved participants in lively workshop discussions, using a visual diagram of a pathway, and concluded with a question and answer session with a panel. There was lively interaction throughout both days, and we have collated feedback here.
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