
Help at the Time of Death
Resources for Help at the Time of Death
We are so very sorry you need to visit this page. Please know you are not alone. We hope the following articles will help you as you try to navigate what has happened.
Please also visit our bereavement services page to find the range of support services available to you and further resources here.
If you would like to talk to someone, our online Grief Counsellor Chat service is available weekdays 9am-9pm or see our helplines here.
Understanding and Supporting Bereavement
This video explains the dying process very gently so that we understand it better and can have conversations with friends and family about it.
Our Body’s Response to Emotional Stress: Unveiling Hidden Causes of Common Grief Symptoms. Are you puzzled by the myriad of grief symptoms you are experiencing?
We provide some information here about what counselling is, what to expect and how to find a good counsellor that suits your needs. The information is helpfully provided by the Association of Christian Counsellors.
A recipe for how to bake a Rosemary for Remembrance Cake from Nigella Lawson’s book Feast.
In traumatic bereavement, children and young people experience very strong emotions because of the meaning they make of the death.
Every death brings its own trauma to survivors. However, when someone is suddenly killed in an accident or murdered, the stress levels rise considerably for those left behind.
Trauma refers to the way that some distressing events are so extreme or shocking that they overwhelm a person’s ability to cope, resulting in lasting negative impact.
There is a lot of good intention around when it comes to bereavement support in terms of providing it but not a great deal of understanding of all the options available and the benefits of informal support.
Different Circumstances
Although losing a loved one is perhaps more common in later life, this doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. If someone you know has been bereaved, there are some simple things you can do to support them.
Losing a baby is one of the most devastating experiences a person can go through. This article covers how to understand the impact of baby loss and how to help those who have gone through it.
The death of a child, of any age, brings heartbreak and devastation. This article was written by Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds who set up the Good Grief Project following the death of their son, Josh.
This briefing is produced by Brake, the road safety charity. It aims to raise awareness of how people with learning disabilities experience grief, and provides advice on how to support them.
There is not a great deal of research on how people with autism deal with bereavement. However there is useful advice available that can help us support anyone with autism, whatever their age.
Self Care
In this article we acknowledge the value of pets in supporting grief and the pain we can also experience when they die.
After the funeral, everyone else's lives seem to go back to normal, and you may be left wondering how you're going to cope. Read on for advice on taking care of yourself, crucial for your future wellbeing and that of others.
When you lose someone, the grief will never go away completely — but there are healthy ways to cope. Some people find that gardening as they grieve, known as ‘grief gardening’, can gently relieve some of the emotional and physical symptoms after the loss of a loved one.
AtaLoss Subject Matter Expert, Sabine Horner is a nutritionist. Here she writes about how deep breathing can help us deal with the storms of emotion when we're bereaved.
Sabine Horner explains why eating can become a major issue after losing a loved one. In the early days, most grievers simply do not feel hungry.
One often-overlooked factor in managing grief is ensuring we are getting enough magnesium. Magnesium is an essential mineral that plays a pivotal role in over 300 biological processes in our body.
Practical Help
You might have to deal with the will, money and property of the person who's died if you're a close friend or relative, or the executor of the will.
If your loved one dies abroad there are a whole set of considerations to take into account. However, there are people to help you and you should seek their advice if you find yourself in this situation.
Registering the death of someone is the official record that their life has ended and is the formal government record of that fact.
We all know that thanks to the wide availability of personal information online identity fraud is increasing. But what happens when an identity is stolen after a person has died?
This article outlines the ways that belongings can be passed on after someone has died and what the legal rules may be.
There’s a lot of Government advice to help and support you when someone dies. This article explains more.
This is our guide to cancelling mail. Receiving post for the person who has died can be very difficult. Depending on the type of mail, there are a variety of practical measures you can take to deal with the problem.
Using the Government's ‘Tell Us Once’ service will ensure all government departments are informed. This includes passports, driving licenses, pensions, benefits, national insurance, tax and blue badges.
Benefits for you if you are a partner or child of the deceased. Depending on which of your loved ones has died your tax allowances, National Insurance and benefits may change.
Funeral Planning
Find here how The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (known as SAIF) can help.
A useful film and book to help any young person understand funerals (burial and cremation) and decide whether to attend and what role they can play in saying goodbye to a loved one.
If you can’t attend a funeral or have chosen not to do so you may want to hold your own memorial service for the person you have lost.
Our guide on how to plan a funeral. A funeral is an opportunity to create a special tribute to your loved one and whilst painful, can also be memorable and a positive experience.
If you are attending the funeral of a someone of a different faith you can get advice here on, for example, what to expect, how to pay your respects, how to send condolences and what to wear to the funeral.