Freeman Brothers was first established as a funeral director in Horsham, West Sussex, in 1855. The company now has a further three offices across the county – in Billingshurst, Crawley and Hurstpierpoint – and continues to provide funeral services and advice upon request.
All bereavements can be challenging, and those which occur due to suicide are highly specific. In addition to missing the person who has died and getting used to life without them, many people are faced with unanswered questions, a lack of support system, and the very real risk to themselves or those around them.
It is important to remember that there is never a right or wrong way to feel regarding bereavement. This week, the family of cricketer, Graham Thorpe, have chosen to share that they are ‘not ashamed’ to discuss the fact that he died by suicide and that, in future, they may consider setting up a charitable foundation to help others who are struggling with mental health issues or bereavement. This is a generous share on their part, revealing such details regarding the events leading up to his death in order to potentially help others.
Whilst additional resources of support are always welcome, we wanted to take the opportunity to offer a signpost towards existing options, for those who are in immediate need. You will find details below of a variety of organisations that offer bereavement support, suicide prevention training, and more.
Bereavement support charity
The charity, Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (aka SoBS) exists to support those in this situation. Help is provided by others who have lived experience of suicide, as peer support is a powerful tool, and allows service users to be truly seen and heard by those who understand. The charity offers specialist groups for certain demographics, and you are able to access help as soon as you have been bereaved, there is no waiting period required as there can be with some other services.
Suicide prevention charity
If you are looking to become more informed, and help to prevent suicide in your community, advice and training is available via Grassroots Suicide Prevention. There are a variety of options depending on the level of education desired and required, from simply choosing the most appropriate language to use, all the way through to the internationally-recognised course Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (also known as ASIST). The organisation has also developed an award-winning app, called Stay Alive, which enables users to curate the help which suits them best should they need it.
Information leaflets
Produced by Public Health England and the National Suicide Prevention Alliance, Help is at Hand leaflets are another excellent resource. They are available free of charge as a digital download via the previous link, and we also keep a stock of them at our offices, which you are welcome to make use of – please just let us know and we will send them to you or arrange for you to collect them from us. Information included covers topics such as: organisations that can help, what you may be experiencing, and how to help others.
Local mental health care
We’ve included this last, as it’s not a source of immediate help, and instead could be relevant to those who are able to wait longer in order to receive support. Any case of bereavement may lead to a need for mental health care, so this advice applies to everyone. Here in West Sussex, our local NHS service is known as Time to Talk and accepts patients via self-referral as well as those who are referred by their GP.
The message that has been shared this week is one aimed at lessening the stigma of discussing mental health difficulties and suicide, and this is something that we admire, particularly when it is shared whilst someone remains in the thick of bereavement. Whether you are recently bereaved or the bereavement occurred some time ago, the above resources are available to you, and we hope that you find them useful.
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