Where to turn if you and your children are suffering a Bereavement - Written by Hertfordshire Cruse

Cruse Bereavement Care Hertfordshire

A voluntary support service for children and adults

The role of Cruse is to offer support, advice and information following bereavement. We are somewhere to turn when someone dies.

At Cruse we are:

·         Responsive – we respond promptly and personally to the individuals’ experience of grief and recognise there is no ‘normal’ or ‘right way’ to grieve.

·         Compassionate – we empathise with our clients’ feelings, care about their grief and work with them to alleviate their distress.

·         Respectful – we treat our staff and volunteers with respect, appreciate their contributions and value their diversity.

·         Supportive – we listen to bereaved people learn from their experience and work to promote their needs.

·         Innovative – we take pride in our professionalism and aim to develop, promote and lead the best practice of bereavement care.

Across the UK, in 2010, Cruse responded to nearly 100,000 requests for assistance; it helped 32,700 bereaved people through face-to-face support. This figure includes 2,500 children and young people under the age of 18. Our 5,000 volunteers gave well over half a million hours of their time to their work with bereaved people.

In Hertfordshire we received over 900 telephone calls during 2010/11 and visited 457 clients.  Our volunteers gave over 9,000 hours of their time to help the bereaved in Hertfordshire.

Cruse helps our Clients to deal with:

·         Losses of many kinds. For example, traumatic deaths, age related deaths, suicide, terminal illnesses and accidents

·         The loss of anyone close. For example family, friends, teachers, colleagues or school friends

·         Loss over any period of time – recent or not

·         Losses that happen in any location