Marie Curie joins Diverse Cymru for Welsh Government funded bereavement project

Two Welsh charities have launched a joint project to support bereaved people across the country – with an aim to ensure equitable access across different communities.

The Wales Bereavement Information and Support Service (BISS) Project is a partnership between Marie Curie and Diverse Cymru and will build on existing bereavement services provided by Marie Curie, the leading end of life charity.

Funded by the Welsh Government's National Bereavement Support Grant, the project will initially run until March 2024, and will see Marie Curie benefit from Diverse Cymru's expertise in connecting with under-represented communities, including often hard-to-reach people in black and ethnic minority communities, asylum seekers and refugees. It will build on the existing bereavement services and support which Marie Curie provides across Wales via its Information and Support service, and through its Helper volunteer befriending service and Family Support Team in Cardiff and the Vale.

The funding announcement comes a week ahead of the second National Day of Reflection, led by Marie Curie, on March 23. It is a day to support the millions of people who've been bereaved during the pandemic and to reflect on the lives of the people who have died.
Marie Curie Associate Director for Wales, Rachel Jones, said: "Recent Marie Curie research found that the barriers to accessing bereavement support included a lack of information and knowledge of how to get support, and discomfort or reluctance to seek help from services.

"The BISS Project will enable Marie Curie to work with Diverse Cymru to target and connect with harder to reach communities to raise awareness of the services that exist, including wider end of life care. As well as providing support and training to recruit around 50 more representative volunteers to provide guidance and support within both our Information and Support Line and in our Helper Service."

Volunteers will initially be recruited in West Wales and North Wales to boost provision within the under-represented localities and gain more Welsh speaking volunteers. It will then be rolled out across the country.

Ben Treharne-Foose volunteers on the existing Information and Support line bereavement service. He said: "Death and dying are intimately linked to culture and I've seen the incredible impact having a safe place to discuss bereavement can have. Regardless of our backgrounds, we all experience loss both personally and culturally. It's important that we create space for each person to journey with their grief and reach communities that may be disconnected from their traditional support networks."

The project also aims to set up 10 bereavement café events by March 2023, aiming to tailor each to meet the needs of different groups, including those needing British Sign Language access.

A full-time counsellor will also be employed to the project to offer support virtually and by phone across Wales. All activities will help reduce waiting times for bereavement services across the country.

Diverse Cymru chief executive, Chris Dunn, said: "Diverse Cymru are delighted to be teaming up with Marie Curie on this project. Creating accessible and equitable services for all communities in Wales is a vision we work towards every day.

"We listen to the experiences of our clients and over the last 2 years it has become clear that there is a real and immediate need for bereavement support services. The BISS project will enable a greater number of individuals and communities across Wales to access these essential services."

Notes to Editor
1 Harrop, E. et al. (2021) 'Support needs and barriers to accessing support: Baseline results of a mixed-methods national survey of people bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic' medRxiv. Available at: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.11.21258575v1.article-info (Accessed: 22/11/2021).