NHS Wakefield CCG: Bereavement Advice and Support Service (BASS)

The importance of bereavement care has been integral in all national end of life care strategies and policy documents. Previously, the National End of Life Care Strategy (Department of Health 2008) included objectives to ensure that carers were appropriately supported both during a patient's life and into bereavement. More recently, the Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care: A national framework for local action 2015 - 2020, reiterates this need. Good palliative and end of life care includes giving care and support to families, friends, carers and all those who are important to the dying person. This must encompass good bereavement and pre-bereavement care. Bereavement advice and support are pivotal to a person's ongoing health and wellbeing. Each individual's bereavement journey will be unique to them and therefore a range of accessible and flexible services should be available to enable support to be tailored to each individual's needs. For example, paid counsellors, volunteer counsellors, befriending, groups and self-help.