Equitable bereavement care for all

Background

Funding has been awarded from NIHR Policy Research Programme (PRP) and the study runs from September 2023 to March 2025. The study is co-led by Dr Catriona Mayland (University of Sheffield) and Dr Sabrina Bajwah (King’s College London). 

Why does this research matter?

Bereavement services are not reaching enough people from ethnically diverse communities. 

Despite the availability of bereavement support services across England, there is inequality in access. In half of all services, only 1 in 20 people accessing support are from ethnically diverse communities. It is important to understand why services are not reaching these individuals, and how services can improve. 

How will we do this?

We aim to do this by:

• Speaking with people from ethnically diverse communities who have been bereaved. This will help us to understand better their grief experiences, support needs and how bereavement services can improve.

• Speaking with people working at and with bereavement support services. This will help us to understand what they are doing to improve access and meet the needs of people from ethnically diverse communities.

• Identifying ways to improve support. We will bring these findings together to develop ways to improve support for bereaved people.

In Sheffield, we are working in partnership with Sheffield Chinese Community Centre, St Luke’s Hospice, Compassionate Sheffield, Roshni, ShipShape, and the Deep End Research Alliance.

For more information 

Please contact Dr Catriona Mayland (Principal investigator) or visit our project webpage.

You can also follow the project on social media: X @BereavementECfA / Instagram @bereavementcareforall