Grief

The death of someone close to us is one of the most difficult and stressful events that we experience in life and coping with bereavement presents many challenges. The examples below are just some of the things that can affect people facing bereavement:

• We may find that we are acting out of character.
• We often are doing things and dealing with people and organisations that are unfamiliar.
• Our normal routines are often completely disrupted.
• We may find that others close to us use very different ways of coping and this can cause conflict.
• We may experience very strong and sometimes very changeable emotions.
• We may be able to face something very difficult because we have prepared ourselves, but then find ourselves caught out by something seemingly trivial but which can spark very strong reaction.
• Occasionally people have thoughts and feelings that are so out of the normal for them

All of these and many other reactions are completely normal.

Support and Advice

Support and advice for patients, their families as well as staff is available - an adviser will be able to put you in touch with a bereavement nurse if you wish and they in turn will be able to offer: mechanisims for coping, referral for counselling, education, support, advice or just an ear or shoulder (or both). Refer to the Bereavement Office Home Page for contact number to make an appointment.