Grief, Loss and Bereavement

Dealing with the social experience of grief, loss and bereavement are challenging areas for everyone, including health and social care practitioners who are often well placed to offer help and support to the bereaved. This book draws together a comprehensive range of worldwide evidence for understanding and supporting the bereaved in a variety of health and social care contexts. It can be used by practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds in both health and social care to gain an appreciation of bereavement and its associated support and care. Additionally, it can be used for personal and professional development by practitioners who want to enhance their own and others’ practice with the bereaved in specific contexts or organisations. The book may also be of value to those undertaking post graduate study who want to gain a wider understanding of the evidence related to bereavement and bereavement care practice in health and social care and may be seeking to add to the body of evidence in this field.

'Why is this a valuable volume for every professional and volunteer dealing with people suffering the loss of a loved one? Basically because it provides state of the art information of theoretical and practical interest on a very wide variety of topics related to grief, bereavement and bereavement care. Everyone who is interested in grief and bereavement care can find solid evidence based information on almost every topic that is explored. A valuable addition to the grief and bereavement library of every health and social care professional.' – Dr H.A.W. Schut, Utrecht University, the Netherlands'Wow! What a book! This is a gem for all health and social care professionals with any involvement in bereavement support work. Peter Wimpenny and John Costello have brought together an impressive team of authors who have a wealth of knowledge and experience, and they share their knowledge in clearly and concisely written chapters, which are often a joy to read. This book is intended to introduce readers to aspects of bereavement which are grouped in three sections: bereavement experiences across the life span, bereavement support requirements in specific working environments and finally two chapters dealing with organisational and educational aspects. The chapters are well structured and reference lists allow keen students to follow up their favourite topics. I particularly recommend the chapters on children’s deaths and perinatal loss. I am sure that this book will become a well used and wise companion to all those who support people dealing with the challenges of bereavement.' – Professor Sheila Payne, Lancaster University, UK

Peter Wimpenny is a lecturer at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. He is a member of the National Framework Group for Bereavement Care in Scotland. He has also been active in evidence informed practice through the Joanna Briggs Institute and SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network).John Costello is an experienced teacher. He has published extensively on topics related to his research on the social experience of death and dying as well as in areas related to teaching and learning. John is a counsellor and an educational consultant to the Chernobyl Children's Project (CCP), a UK charity focused on promoting palliative care in Belarus and other areas of Eastern Europe.