North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood, has called for improved support for those who have been bereaved by suicide, and also the charities that are helping them.
Speaking in yesterday’s Debate on Suicide Bereavement Support, Mr Isherwood, who is Chair of the Cross Party Group on Funerals and Bereavement, said that, according to Samaritans Cymru, between 300 and 350 people die by suicide each year in Wales, with the male suicide rate almost three times higher than that for females, and urged the Welsh Government to do more to ensure their loved ones gets the help they need.
Mr Isherwood also noted that a person bereaved by suicide is far more likely to attempt suicide themselves and called for support for this group to be recognised as a key element of suicide prevention.
He referred to the case of Rhian Mannings, the founder of the all-Wales charity ‘2 Wish Upon a Star’, whose son’s sudden death and the lack of support they received directly led to her husband taking his own life.
Mr Isherwood went on to commend the charity she has set up to provide essential bereavement support for families who have suddenly and traumatically lost a child or young adult aged under 25, which may be from suicide or may be through accident or illness, but emphasised, that they, and many of the other charities providing essential bereavement support, receive little or no statutory funding.
He said:
“Although the charity has effectively become a statutory service in Wales, working with every health board and every police force, they're receiving no statutory support whatsoever, having to raise every penny themselves, despite reducing pressure on mental health teams, helping tackle the unforeseeable trauma of unpredictable death and loss.
“Cruse Bereavement Care launched their manifesto for bereaved people two months ago. They believe that ‘access to the right support, tailored to the need of each bereaved person, can help them deal with the challenges of grief and build a meaningful life, whilst remembering and celebrating the lives of those they have lost’. This, they say, ‘can in turn help improve mental health and reduce the impact on NHS services’.
“Amongst other things, Cruse is calling for a named Minister with responsibility for bereavement and a cross-departmental strategy, and for local funding for high-quality bereavement support, where they say ‘too many people still lack support after bereavement,’ where ‘in too many areas, there is no statutory funding for the agencies and charities helping bereaved people’. And they call for ‘more compassionate communities where everyone knows enough about grief to play their part in supporting people around a death’.
Mr Isherwood, who is also Chair of the Cross-Party Group on Hospices and Palliative Care, outlined the four recommendations proposed by the Group to improve the care and support of bereaved people in Wales: to improve data on the need for bereavement support so services can plan for meeting need, to make bereavement a key feature of all relevant policy, considered and embedded in Welsh Government strategy and policy, to embed bereavement support in schools, and to make the provision of bereavement care sustainable.
Mr Isherwood also referred to the publication last month of the 'A Scoping Survey of Bereavement Services in Wales: End of Study Report' commissioned by the Welsh Government, which identified that more bereavement services were available in the south-east of Wales, with the least number being available in the North and West of Wales.
He concluded: “A key consideration from the results, therefore, is the development of a national delivery framework for bereavement care. This is urgent and must include support for those bereaved by suicide, co-produced by those with lived experience”.
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