The NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) Mental Health Improvement Team has been working with colleagues and partner organisations to equip staff and volunteers with the confidence and resources to have conversations about loss, grief and bereavement. This has included staff training and resource development.

A ‘Loss and Grief during a Pandemic’ session has been developed and included within NHSGGC’s Healthy Minds resource. Healthy Minds can be used by anyone to promote a basic awareness and understanding of mental health and topics that are associated with and can impact on mental health. This new addition offers the opportunity to raise awareness and start the conversation around the losses and grief experienced during COVID-19. 

A newly published ‘Grief after a Bereavement’ poster provides some simple strategies to help manage our grief experiences in healthy ways. The poster is free to download from the Mental Health Improvement Team website or copies can be ordered free from the Public Health Resource Directory www.phrd.scot.nhs.uk. The poster is also available in various languages.

Michelle Guthrie, Health Improvement Senior (Mental Health) said: “As we work through the disruption and impact of COVID-19, it has affected us all in some way or other. We have been left to deal with a tsunami of emotions from anger, anxiety, fear and denial, emotions often associated with grief. Grief is a natural response and affects people in different ways. Grief can affect our mental health and for those experiencing mental health problems grief can worsen the symptoms. 

“Grieving through COVID-19 has proved to be extremely challenging as more often than not we cope with the help of family, friends, work colleagues and our wider social connections such as religious and spiritual gatherings, clubs and other activities. Keeping routines is one of the many ways in which people cope with grief and this has been difficult to do as our day-to-day lives have changed significantly. As a result, the pandemic has transformed lives unimaginably, affecting many people in different ways, with many experiencing loss in its widest sense, not only bereavement.”

The Mental Health Improvement Team has also been working with the Primary Care Mental Health and Wellbeing Group and has commissioned Child Bereavement UK to deliver a series of bereavement webinars to Primary Care staff aligned to GP practices across Glasgow City. The webinars are running until February 2021.

The Team has also developed a staff guide, ‘Supporting those Affected by Bereavement,’ which has been distributed to all GP practices. This resource aims to support staff to have conversations and help signpost patients to supports and resources appropriate to their bereavement needs. It provides information on a range of organisations local, city-wide and national, useful websites and helplines and downloadable resources that staff and patients can access. The resource can be downloaded from NHSGGC’s website.

If you would like any further information on the loss and bereavement work of the NHSGGC Mental Health Improvement Team please contact michelle.guthrie@ggc.scot.nhs.uk