Background and overview
The Nottingham City Severe and Multiple Disadvantage (SMD) Partnership want to improve support for people experiencing grief or traumatic loss.
Anecdotally, those facing SMD have often experienced traumatic losses, such as the sudden death of a partner or friend, including witnessing and / or being involved in attempts to prevent the death. Such experiences often contribute to mental health difficulties and increased substance use as an attempt to cope with difficult memories, thoughts, or feelings.
Rates of premature death are increasing for those facing severe and multiple disadvantage (SMD), meaning there is increased risk of grief and traumatic loss for both people accessing services and also staff supporting them.
In addition to service user deaths, any organisation will have staff members who are experiencing grief within their personal lives and, on occasion, experience the loss of colleagues.
Recent research within Framework (Marks et al., 2023) indicated that staff are not generally prepared to experience the death of service users and over half of those who did reported being negatively affected.
Grief and traumatic loss can be closely related to mental health problems, homelessness, substance use, offending and domestic abuse.
This project is the first known concerted multi-agency initiative to address grief in relation to SMD across a city-wide workforce:
- The Practice Development Unit (PDU) has collaborated with The Loss Foundation, a national charity which specialises in bereavement support and contemporary psychological models of grief, to develop a bespoke training package to increase knowledge and confidence in dealing with bereavement and loss.
- A range of local organisations have agreed to support the roll out of this initiative and will be offered continued support over the next year to do this through the PDU and psychology team at Framework.
- A specialist clinical psychologist has trained this group of Nottingham city workers to provide training to upskill the workforce in their response to grief and traumatic loss.
- This team of trainers will deliver sessions on this topic to a range of individuals from different organisations throughout the year via the PDU.
Our training offer
Two different training courses have been created:
How to support those who are grieving - focused on general support for those grieving.
Working therapeutically with grief - focused on prolonged or traumatic grief
Who is this training for?
- The training is open to anyone with a desire to increase their skills and confidence in supporting people who experience grief.
- We are keen for a wide range of local organisations to benefit from this training offer.
- Given the evidence base for the relationship between grief and SMD, we want support to be available as widely and as early as possible for people to prevent prolonged and complex grief.
Please note: this training is designed to upskill people in their knowledge, skills and confidence to support people who are grieving. This course is NOT a grief support group, or a space to receive bereavement support/therapy. It is a training programme designed to improve the way we respond to and identify grief and traumatic bereavement locally.
When are the sessions being delivered?
The sessions will be delivered at various dates throughout the next year. (Current times are listed when you click through to the course pages).
Where will the training take place?
The training sessions will be delivered in both face to face and online formats.
Can I do both sessions?
Yes! Individuals are encouraged to take part in both training courses if they feel they could benefit from this.
- “How to support those who are grieving” - is targeted at a range of staff, including those in direct service delivery, managers, and may also be of interest to people within Human Resources departments who can influence policy and practice to develop psychologically-informed support for the workforce. This session has a more general focus on grief.
- “Working therapeutically with grief” - is targeted more specifically at those working directly with service users or with a remit for supporting staff wellbeing. This is focused on prolonged or traumatic grief and how to use an Acceptance Commitment Therapy approach to grief.
*It is strongly advised that people who sign up to the 'Working therapeutically with grief' training have completed the introductory course on 'How to support those who are grieving'.
Is there a cost?
This partnership initiative has been funded by Framework, Nottingham Changing Futures and Nottingham City Council's Covid Relief Fund. It is free to take part and open to people working in Nottingham and neighbouring areas.
How do I sign up?
To register for this training visit the course pages:
How to support those who are grieving
Working therapeutically with grief
Want more information?
We have created a briefing pack to explain the context to this project and to advise how partner organisations can benefit from this free training offer:
PDU Bereavement and Loss Training - Briefing Pack
We have also designed posters to share with your networks:
PDU Bereavement and Loss Training posters
Any questions?
If you have any further questions, please email pdu@nottinghamcvs.co.uk
This work is supported by:
