In Times of Bereavement

Cruse Bereavement Care Information

For most of us, bereavement will be the most distressing experience we will ever face. Grief is what we feel when somebody we are close to dies. Everyone experiences grief differently and there is no ‘normal’ or ‘right’ way to grieve.

Grief is a natural process, and most people will cope with help and support from family and friends.

For those who need additional specialist help, Cruse offers free confidential support for adults and children, and this can be by telephone, email or face-to-face.

Cruse Bereavement Care is here to support you after the dealth of someone close. If someone you know has died and you need to talk, call 0808 808 1677 or send an email to helpline@cruse.org.uk

For further information or help on Cruse Bereavement Care please click here.

If Death Occurs At Home

1. Telephone the doctor who will visit to confirm that death has taken place.

2. Contact a funeral director.

3. Arrange to collect the doctor’s Medical Certificate of Death (usually from the surgery).

4. Take this to the Registrars Office, (together with the deceased’s Medical Card and Birth Certificate, if available) for the area in which the death took place. Alternatively you can register by declaration at any convenient Registrars Office but certificates will not be available as these will have to be posted to you a few days later.

5. The Registrar will normally issue a Green coloured certificate for you to give to your funeral director who will look after necessary arrangements for the funeral. The Registrar will also issue a white notification certificate for the DSS. They will also enquire as to the number of Certified Copies you require for dealing with the deceased finances (a fee is payable for each copy).

If The Death Occurs In Hospital

1. Contact a funeral director to inform him his services are required.

2. Collect the certificate from the hospital then follow 4 – 5 as above

Note For Cremation

Your funeral director will usually liaise directly with the surgery regarding the additional certification required.

Daffodil Standards

Southbourne Surgery has just signed up to the ‘Daffodil Standards’ which is stating that we are concerned with good end of life care and wish to enhance and improve where possible.

What currently happens is that often the doctor who has been involved in the care of the dying patient most recently will make contact with the spouse or other relative(s). Sometimes, however this is not always possible if that doctor is away or if the relative is not a patient of our surgery.

In general, as end of life care is a multidisciplinary team based process, at least one member of the team will have been in touch with the bereaved family after the passing of their relative. Indeed, relatives needs differ and often a standard approach from any organisation may not be the most appropriate approach and so we need to carefully examine our role in this as an organisation how best we address this need in a sympathetic way without being perfunctory or mechanistic.

We will certainly discuss this as a team and also with the wider multidisciplinary team (such as the hospice and community teams)  as we look to develop our end of life care in keeping with the Daffodil Standards and we will be using feedback, self-assessment and reflection to identify those areas where we can improve the care of patients who are reaching the end of their life.

We will continue to discuss further in our team meetings to enhance our approach