SAIF teams up with National Counselling Society to improve bereavement support
06/11/2018 // No Comments
A new partnership between two leading professional associations aims to improve counselling and support offered to people following a bereavement. SAIF and the National Counselling Society (NCS) have teamed up to develop a set of guidelines to ensure vulnerable people in a state of grief are able to access care more quickly and from trusted providers. The move is aimed at helping the thousands of newly bereaved people each year who have to wait months for support either from the NHS or third sector providers.
Working in partnership with counselling specialist Professional Help, SAIF earlier this year launched SAIF Care, a free bereavement service for funeral directing businesses in membership of the association, which represents the UK’s independent funeral directors. More than 360 branches are now offering the service.
The new partnership between SAIF and the NCS builds on SAIF Care and will:
- Raise awareness of the benefits of timely and professional bereavement support and counselling
- Develop a set of guidelines to help funeral directors engage with professional counsellors and counselling services
- Raise awareness of SAIF Care amongst families who use a SAIF member funeral director
- Highlight opportunities for bereavement-specific training and CPD for both funeral directors and counsellors.
Terry Tennens, Chief Executive of SAIF, said the new partnership with the NCS offered an exciting opportunity to make a difference to a significant number of people. “The partnership with the NCS is a logical next step for us following the establishment of SAIF Care in March this year. There’s a definite need to widen counselling support and one way to do this is to ensure funeral directors are able to sign-post bereaved people to appropriate counselling services. Strengthening the national network of bereavement counsellors will complement the services already offered through SAIF Care, whilst reducing waiting times and ensuring support is available from people who’ve undergone appropriate training and background checks,” he said.
