Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
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The role of one-to-one volunteer support in helping bereaved
families:
clients’ views
Amanda Roberts. Department of Psychology, NUI Maynooth and St
Francis Hospice, Station Rd, Raheny. B.A., aroberts@sfh.ie
Sinéad McGilloway. Department of Psychology, NUI Maynooth,
BSSc., Ph.D., CPsychol. CSci.
Background: The rapid development of hospice-based
bereavement support services reflects a growing need to provide
appropriate support for bereaved family members. The nature and
extent of bereavement services offered to the bereaved vary widely,
but may range from written information and memorial services to
social activities and dedicated one-to-one support 6 . The National
Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends that service
providers should offer three levels of service support across a
spectrum of low, medium and high level care 4 but few studies have
2, 3, 4,
been undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of such services
5 .
The bereavement service provided by the hospice in this study
comprises five main elements: (1) a bereavement follow-up contact
made to a family member by hospice staff shortly after the death;
(2) a Monthly Memorial Ceremony; (3) a Bereavement Information
Evening (BIE), a presentation by the hospice social worker on the
bereavement process and the hospice bereavement services; (4) a
Volunteer Bereavement Support Service (VBSS), a listening service
provided by trained volunteers under the supervision of the hospice
social work team; and (5) two annual events – an Annual
Remembrance Service and the Christmas ‘Tree of Life’ Ceremony.
Aims: This study was designed to evaluate all elements of an adult
bereavement support service provided in a large hospice in Dublin.
The Volunteer Bereavement Support Service is the focus of this
paper which formed part of the first stage of the study.
Method: Participants who were invited to attend one or more of the
bereavement services (including the VBSS) during the previous 12
months (n=529) were sent a Bereavement Service Questionnaire
(BSQ). The BSQ was designed for purposes of the study in order to
elicit a wide range of background information on all respondents
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