Cruse Bereavement Care Kensington & Chelsea and Central London Samaritans in partnership

Support group for those bereaved by suicide

If someone close to you has taken their own life Cruse Bereavement Care Kensington and Chelsea in partnership with Central London Samaritans can offer group support to help understand your grief and cope with your loss.

The support groups will offer an alternative to one-to-one bereavement support, and are an opportunity for people bereaved by suicide to meet and share their experiences and feelings, supported by those who may be in a similar situation.

Our autumn groups are now fully subscribed but we are arranging more groups for February 2012.

To register your interest in future groups, or for more information, please email supportgroup@cls.org.uk or call 020 7758 0029 and leave us a message. We will be in touch with you in the new year with dates for the next group.

Groups are available to those aged 18 or over. Before being accepted for group support you will be contacted by one of the group facilitators for an informal discussion about your situation and current needs.

‘Being bereaved by suicide can be incredibly isolating and it can feel like no one understands or can relate to such a loss, unless they have been there themselves. In offering support groups to those bereaved by suicide, in partnership with Cruse, we hope to be able to alleviate that isolation and give people a safe and confidential space to express and share with others what they are going through. Those bereaved by suicide are at greater risk of taking their own lives and Samaritans as an organisation is very much focused on reaching out to and supporting this group.’
Rosie Ellis, Co-Director for Outreach at Central London Samaritans

‘Cruse volunteers have first hand experience of working with those who have been bereaved by suicide. We understand the particularly complicated mourning process that can afflict people in these circumstances. We are working with Samaritans providing group sessions in order to help, by virtue of being with others in a similar situation, to alleviate the pressure of anger, guilt, despair and extreme sadness from which those bereaved in this way regularly suffer. We cannot change their situations, but we can hope to alter their perceptions in ways which can lead to acceptance and understanding.’
Caroline Waldegrave, Chair of Cruse Bereavement Care’s Kensington & Chelsea Branch

 

Listen again to the Radio 4 programme 'All in the Mind' which featured the support groups and was aired on 3rd May 2011. A follow up feature on 'All in the Mind' was also aired on 10th May 2011.

Samaritans is a confidential emotional support service for anyone in the UK and Ireland. The service is available 24 hours a day for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which may lead to suicide. Volunteers offer support by responding to phone calls, emails and letters. Alternatively people can drop in to a branch to have a face to face meeting.

The service is offered by 17,000 trained volunteers and is entirely dependent on voluntary support. There are 201 branches of Samaritans in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Cruse Bereavement Care is the UK’s largest bereavement charity and responds to nearly 100,000 requests for support every year. Cruse passionately believes that all those facing bereavement deserve exceptional care and provides support and offer information, advice, education and training services. The charity has over 100 areas/branches across England, Northern Ireland and Wales. More information about the Kensington and Chelsea Branch of Cruse Bereavement Care can be found at www.kc-cruse.org.uk or by phoning 020 8964 3455.

More general information about Cruse can be found at www.cruse.org.uk or by phoning the helpline on 0844 479400.