CRUSE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2010: WARWICK UNIVERSITY, JULY 20 - 21

In her introduction, Debbie Kerslake, Chief Executive of Cruse Bereavement Care, said:

"We find in Cruse that increasing numbers of bereaved people are seeking our help. Early analysis of statistics from last year (2009/10) shows:

• More requests for help - nearly 100,000 (up by 5%)
• Face-to-face support provided to nearly 33,000
• More men are asking for help - a 4.5% increase
• Large increases in numbers supported from black and minority ethnic groups (55%)  and children and young people (17%) 
• We provided face-to-face support to 2,500 children and young people under the age of 18
• The vast majority of people coming to Cruse have been advised to do so by their GP (55%)
• A significant proportion of those seeking help do so following a death from suicide, accidents, homicide, road crashes and major disasters (15%)
• Cruse worked with more than 1,700 people bereaved through suicide
• Volunteers gave 570,000 hours - an all time high

"These figures highlight the very large number of people Cruse works with. But despite the increases we know there are people not getting the support they need. There are gaps in coverage; there is failure to reach particular under-represented groups and there are skills and areas of work that need to be developed.

"This is our largest Cruse annual conference to date with the broadest spectrum of delegates from the voluntary, statutory and private sectors; the health service, the military, the funeral industry and academia. I think I can confidently say that all of us here today believe: bereavement is one of the worst experiences anyone will face in their whole lives and that bereaved people should be given appropriate, high quality support."

Please click here for the full text of Debbie's introduction, "Leading the Way in Bereavement Care".

Keynote Speakers 2010 (please click where there is a link to a presentation):

• Professor Margaret Stroebe: Does research have a role to play in taking care of the bereaved? (pdf 470KB)
  Department of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
• Dr Bill Webster: New perspectives on grief support
  Grief counsellor and international speaker, from Canada
• Jim Kuykendall: The life that’s left – the exploration starts with us
  International lecturer on the subject of bereavement; trained in bereavement process under Dr Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Presentations from the conference and workshops:
Bereavement in later life, Centre for Innovative Aging, Swansea University
Bereavement Pathways Project: briding the gap, Catherine Betley, Director of Services, Cruse
Bereavement support in prisons, Morven McFadden, Development Officer, Cruse
A ghost in the family: examing sibling bereavement in childhood and adolescence, Alison Thompson, Children's Services Development Manager, Cruse
Grief: lessons from the past; visions for the future, Colin Murray Parkes (pdf, 1.5KB)
Coping with bereavement: losing an adult child, Barbara A Wilson OBE (pdf, 1.3KB)
Loss, grief and bereavement: anticipatory grief and pre-bereavement support, Barbara Beard, Senior Lecturer, Sheffield Hallam University
Cruse armed services project, Jenny Green

View the conference programme: click here for details (pdf 700KB)

Click here to see reports from the Golden Jubilee Annual Conference 2009, and earlier annual conferences

LIVING BEYOND LOSS
Second National Conference on Bereavement in a Healthcare Setting, Dundee 2 and 3 September 2010

This conference is a major opportunity for all those who work in health or social care or whose work brings them into contact with people who are facing their own death, or struggling to come to terms with the death of relative or friend, with speakers who are leaders in the field.

Please click here for the full programme.

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