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THE BEREAVEMENT PATHWAYS PROJECT
NATIONAL EVENTS AND INTERNATIONAL PRESENTATIONS
| INTRODUCTION | NATIONAL EVENTS | LOCAL EVENTS | PILOTS | ARTICLES AND LINKS |
BRIDGING THE GAP - a presentation about the project to the International Conference in Australia, July 2008, where two members of the steering group presented the Bereavement Pathways Project at the 8th Annual International Conference on Grief and Bereavement, held in Melbourne. Dawn Chaplin, vice-chair of the Bereavement Services Association and Head of Bereavement Services at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham, and Debbie Kerslake, Chief Executive of Cruse, made the presentation jointly.
PATHWAYS THROUGH GRIEF - first national conference on grief in the healthcare setting held in Scotland, autumn 2008. Presentation on Bereavement Care for Relatives and Carers by Rev Dr Derek Fraser with some of the Bereavement Pathway Project's National Survey findings.
NATIONAL STAKEHOLDER DAYS
Two stakeholder events were held for the Bereavement Pathways Project, with participants attending from all sectors relating to bereavement care and bereavement services. Both days opened with an overview of the project from Debbie Kerslake, Chief Executive and Head of Service Development 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 auhor. He is also Life President of Cruse. He opened his talk 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 Colin's full presentation here.
BIRMINGHAM
Key speaker in Birmingham was Pauline Smith, Clinical Lead for End of Life Care at West Midlands Strategic Health Authority. In her postion with the SHA, Pauline contributed to Lord Darzi’s End of Life Care vision for the NHS, published summer 2008.
“The pathway resonates with me on a personal level,” she told 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.”
You can see Pauline's slide presentation, to be read with her accompanying paper.
Both days involved participants in lively workshop discussions, and concluded with a question and answer session with a panel. There was lively interaction throughout both days.
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