St Barnabas Hospice is teaming up with charities and individuals across the UK to raise awareness of grief throughout National Grief Awareness Week.
Spearheaded by The Good Grief Trust, the UK’s first National Grief Awareness Week will run from Monday 2nd December to Sunday 8th December. The goal is to offer a toolkit of support to those coping with bereavement, as well as helping others know what to say and do to help those grieving.
The impact of grief can be devastating and can last a lifetime. To put this into perspective, the current death figures for the UK are:
- One person dies every minute.
- A parent dies every 22 minutes, leaving behind 41,000 dependent children.
- That equals 112 newly bereaved children every day.
- 1 in 29 children have lost a parent – roughly one child per classroom.
- There are 21 child deaths each day.
- 90% of young offenders have had an average of 6 bereavements by the age of 18.
St Barnabas Hospice has a bereavement service which provides free support to anyone in Lincolnshire who is bereaved. The Hospice supports all adults, regardless of whether their loved one received hospice care or not. 
Tracy Tuffs, Counselling Service Team Lead at St Barnabas Hospice, said:
“We have a team of dedicated staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to support people across Lincolnshire. In total, we have 37 trained counsellors, 18 supportive listeners and 39 volunteer group coordinators.
“Grief comes in many forms, and no two people’s grief is ever the same. There isn’t a time limit on grieving and we recognise that our support must be tailored to each individual. This is why we have options for people to attend one-to-one counselling, bereavement groups, supportive listening sessions and even follow-on friendship groups for those who have moved past the early stages of grief.”
Former Grange Hill actress, Linda Magistris, founded The Good Grief Trust in 2016 following the death of her partner. Linda said:
“Every year an average of 530,000 people die in the UK, with many more family, friends and colleagues left to grieve, often alone. We will all be affected by a bereavement sometime in our lives, yet we still find it hard to talk about our grief.”
Patrons of the week include former cricketer Phil Tufnell, former pop singer Shirlie Kemp (Holliman), actor and director Todd Carty and Sky Sports presenter Anna Woolhouse.
The St Barnabas Hospice Wellbeing team is here to provide free support to people coping with a bereavement across Lincolnshire. To refer yourself to this service, call 0300 020 0694.
If organisations would like to speak to someone from the Wellbeing team about working in partnership, contact Laura Stones on 01522 518 246 or email [email protected]