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Bereavement Training for Individuals: Supporting Grief & Loss

Understanding the Experience of Bereaved People

Whether you’re a carer, work in the public sector, or you’re one of millions of others communicating with bereaved people and you want to learn how to help more effectively, our new bereavement training course gives you guidance, tips and resources to understand the grief and bereavement experience better.

  • Emergency services providers
  • NHS Trusts
  • Private healthcare providers
  • Care organisations
  • Charities
  • Funeral service providers
  • Customer-facing team members

Our new course will be delivered online by Teams and is open for anyone to book.

We will introduce you to the experiences of bereaved people, the practical tasks that must be completed following a death and the psychological experience of grief. We’ll discuss how to have sensitive conversations in the context of your workplace or elsewhere, and how to access support that will match the individual needs of a bereaved person.

Cost: £60 inc.

Please note: No more than 5 participants from one organisation on any one course.  Please include your contact details on the form and a brief description of your reason for doing the training. We will send you details of how to pay. If you are seeking bereavement training for your organisation or for a group, please check our workforce group bereavement training offer.

We may limit the number of participants depending on circumstances.

If you are interested in attending, please click on ‘Book your Place’ button below to register your interest and we will confirm the next available date shortly

Call us free: 0800 0246 121 or email: info@thenbs.org

Book Your Place View Brochure (PDF)

“The National Bereavement Service provided two training sessions to our Social Prescribing Team. We speak with bereaved people every week and we all felt that we needed more education around how best to support their needs.

Overall, we all found that the training made us think about how we might support patients more appropriately going forward and we gained so much knowledge and insight. We would highly recommend the training to other organisations, especially as many patients have let us know that after a death, they have found some institutions (such as banks, insurance companies, etc.) have been particularly unhelpful and obstructive to those coping with bereavement. We would suggest that this type of training should be mandatory in these situations.”

Lisa Appadurai - Link Worker Social Prescribing

“This was exactly the sort of information we were looking for when we contacted you. The comments section was going off the hook with people stating that they’d found the session helpful and reassuring, even someone saying it had lessened their anxiety around this topic.

The training was brilliant, I feel far more educated and up-to-speed in the bereavement space and I think a lot of our colleagues will benefit hugely from this.”

Charlotte Bedford - Senior Policy Advisor Department for Transport

“We engaged NBS as some staff were finding it difficult to engage with clients and colleagues who were experiencing bereavement. Anne Wadey made the long journey down to Bristol to deliver a seminar to our staff. The staff found it both interesting and useful, those who could not attend will attend a follow up zoom meeting.
We cannot recommend the service enough.”

Neil Townsend Office Manager

“The team at Exizent are so grateful for the time Anne and Lisa took to talk to us about their experience supporting families, and how they carefully tailored the talk for us.
It was so well received and paved the way for a lot of interesting discussions, particularly on the language we should use when talking about loss. Thank you both, it was very thought-provoking.”

Nick Cousins Founder & CEO of Exizent

“The training provided by the National Bereavement Service was tailored to the work we do with our clients. We appreciated the call before the training to understand how we work and what we were looking for. The training itself was delivered well and allowed ample time for questions.

The information provided was affirming in terms of our current processes with some food for thought on how we can make improvements. We would recommend the training to corporate organisations who deal directly with bereaved individuals.”

Christina Bowyer Partner, Head of Pinsent Masons Pensions Services at Pinsent Masons

I was delighted with the content and feedback, with over 500 advisers attending the webinar and providing overwhelmingly positive feedback, and many requesting further information.

The comments post the event suggested that this difficult but extremely important subject was something they really welcomed expert guidance on.

Vince Smith-Hughes - Director of Specialist Business Support Prudential (part of M&G plc)

NBS facilitated a thought-provoking session on bereavement using their expertise to provide employees with an opportunity to better understand and prepare for the bereavement process, encouraging more open discussions on this topic.

NBS wove two Sky personal story speakers into their interactive session to demonstrate to Sky employees how grief can affect people differently followed by Q&A.

Mental Health Empowerment - Finance & Procurement Sky

Help family, employees, customers and volunteers

NBS has many years of experience supporting organisations to communicate and manage grieving individuals. Our training shares that experience and is unique in explaining both the emotional and practical aspects of bereavement and the interplay between them. Our expertise includes all the countries in the UK and we’re proud to have been mentioned on the BBC as one of the go-to places for bereavement support.

Bereavement will affect most people during their lifetime, but many people don’t know what to do when someone dies. Our bereavement courses for individuals equips you with the skills to help manage your own experience of grief together with understanding the practical aspects of bereavement.

The experience of covid has resulted in many employers better understanding the need to support bereaved employees together with the need to equip them to respond to customers/clients empathetically in a way that is appropriate to the business to client relationship.

Whether you want to better support your own teams, colleagues, customers or volunteers during their bereavement leave and during their return to work period, or enhance the skills and resilience of your staff who have conversations with bereaved people, NBS can help. The foundations for all our courses are understanding the experience of grief and communicating better with bereaved people.

Who we provide training for

Anyone wanting to enhance their care for bereaved family members, employees, customers or volunteers, especially during their bereavement experience. Common sectors we work with include retail, construction, logistics, financial institutions, housing providers, leisure, residential care providers.

Anyone who has employees or volunteers who are carers (Planning ahead as a Carer).

Anyone with staff who have sensitive conversations with bereaved people including:

  • Charities supporting bereaved people in the community
  • NHS primary care providers, including social prescribers, wanting to better understand how to support bereaved people
  • NHS secondary/tertiary health care providers wanting to better understand bereavement, including conversations about referral to the coroner and post-mortem examinations
  • Financial, insurance and legal organisations who have sensitive conversations with bereaved people about how to access funds and probate or debt
  • Any organisation that encounters people in bereavement crisis circumstances e.g. emergency services, transport providers, vehicle recovery services, travel companies

If your organisation is not on this list, contact us anyway as we’re always pleased to learn about new contexts and to explore new ways of achieving our ultimate goal of enhancing knowledge of and the resilience to cope with bereavement in the community as a whole.

If we cannot provide training, we may be able to signpost you to a more appropriate organisation, counselling service or charity.

How training works

All of our bereavement education over 90 minutes in length will be broken up by a comfort break. We combine presentations with interactive elements and are very comfortable sharing the leading of a workshop with you.

We love teaching about bereavement and seeing the confidence of our course participants grow. Their engagement as individuals is increased with the knowledge that their organisation is investing in becoming a more compassionate and supportive person.

Participants we have trained can prepare for and cope better with their own experiences of grief. We cannot mitigate the pain following the death of someone we care for, but we can prevent the panic that might arise through not knowing what to do next.

All sessions are offered on-line and include time for Q&A. Training of 3 hours or more is available face-to-face by request. More than one session can be provided with seamless transitions. All courses of 3 hours and over will include a comfort break.

Contact us

Training overview example

Bereavement & Grief

Introduction to the work of the National Bereavement Service

Would it be helpful to be able to refer your service users to National Bereavement Service for information and signposting on both practical and emotional bereavement issues? This session will help you understand who we are and how we can extend the support you give to bereaved people.

(minimum 30 minutes)

What do bereaved people have to do and how it feels

Includes an overview of the practical tasks facing bereaved people and the impact these tasks have together with an introduction to the experience and emotions of grief.
(minimum 60 minutes)

Step by Step – what to do when someone dies

Understanding the detail of all the practical tasks that need to be done after someone has died and the order in which they can be achieved Includes who has to be informed about the death and the best ways to do this and an introduction to probate/dealing with the estate.
(minimum 60 minutes)

The Experience of Grief

This course focuses on the lived experience of grief and how it feels. Includes an overview of the main models and theories of bereavement to enable you to do your own further reading.
(minimum 60 minutes)

Communicating with Bereaved People as Part of Your Job

How do you communicate with bereaved people with empathy but also effectively to achieve what your caller and your organisation need from the conversation? What can I say and what should I never say?
(minimum 60 minutes but we recommend at least 90 minutes)

Understanding Probate

What is probate and why is it needed? What difference does it make if someone has made a will? We introduce you to the essentials of dealing with the estate of someone who has died
(minimum 60 minutes)

How do we support someone who is bereaved at work? Both immediately after the death and for the longer term

Understand what you can do as an organisation to help your bereaved colleagues feel respected, cared for and able to return to work after a bereavement.
(minimum 30 minutes)

 

We also offer a range of online training sessions on legal and financial and emotional wellbeing topics in partnership with Adroit Legal Services:

Why You Should make a Will

It is easy to put off making a Will – this session explains why it is important and how it can protect your family if you are no longer here to care for them.

30-45mins

The Importance of Lasting Powers of Attorney

This session covers why you need a Power of Attorney, common misconceptions and what happens if you don’t have them.
30-45mins

Residential Conveyancing

This session explains the many types of matters a conveyancer can deal with and the importance of engaging with a reputable, trustworthy, and proactive firm.  We also cover FAQs, such as how long does a property transaction take, and why, as well as taking you through the conveyancing process.
30-45mins

Family Law

This session discusses everything ‘family’, including divorce and finances, children (including types of court orders, no order principle, the role of CAFCASS, and parental responsibility), family agreements (pre and post nuptial and cohabitation agreements), and domestic abuse (harassment and the police, non-molestation order, occupation order).
30-45mins

Funeral Plans Explained

This session explains what a funeral plan is and the different options, the key benefits of taking out a plan, and the important points to consider before purchasing.
30-45mins

Protecting your Property and Money

This is a longer more in-depth session explaining ways to protect your property and money including the benefit of lifetime trusts to protect your wealth, avoid probate, and help reduce inheritance tax.
45-60mins

An Invitation to Care

A webinar for working carers as well as those with older family members in need.
From the practical and financial support available for those caring for another, to the important first steps to take in respect of navigating the needs of an older family member in need of care, this webinar will provide an overview of some of the key things you need to know
45-60mins

Self-harm/Suicide Prevention Education

For employers and organisations who would like to support those who may deal with customers, colleagues or family members who are self-harming or may be having thoughts of self-harm or suicide.
45-60mins
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Get in touch

Contact us today

For more information about the National Bereavement Service, contact us today on:

UK callers:

0800 0246 121

International callers:

0191 656 3201

Email:

info@thenbs.org

or contact us via our live chat function below.