Paul Sartori Bereavement Service

Counselling and Support Service
This is our team:

Lead Counsellor:
Elvire Beijdorff

Counsellors:

Lis Cousens
Diana Webb


Support can be provided for anyone, patient or family, who is struggling with some aspect of a life limiting disease. The following are common reasons for people seeking support:

Coming to terms with a life limiting diagnosis

Finding ways to talk to friends and family about difficult issues

Coping with being the carer of someone near the end of life

Dealing with a personality change in a family member near the end of life

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Bereavement Support

Who is eligible? After the death of patient we have provided care for, we contact the closest family member to offer bereavement follow up to any family member who would like it. Anyone can make a referral to this service, provided the bereaved person agrees. Referrals can be made 365 days of the year and clients will usually be contacted within a week. When the referral is made, the person taking the call will give you an idea of how soon the Support Worker will be able to contact you. This will usually be within one working week.
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BEREAVEMENT GROUPS: New Service

The Paul Sartori Foundation is delighted to have been awarded a £5,000 grant by the Big Lottery Fund to set up Bereavement Support Groups across the county. We already offer one-to-one bereavement counselling and support to the families of our patients and other bereaved people referred to us. We get excellent feedback on this on this service, but we want to extend it and offer the option of participating in a bereavement support group. What can groups offer? Groups can give people additional reassurance that they are not alone and that their bereavement experiences are a normal part of grieving. We also hope that groups will help to address the problem of social isolation. There are a lot of reasons for bereaved people to feel isolated. Firstly, they may well have spent a long time caring for the person who died and putting their needs before a social life. It may also be that a couple’s social life revolved round the interests of the person who died – and even at the best of times, it can be difficult to go into a social situation alone. Meetings

This scheme will provide bereavement support followed by help (if needed) to make contact with community groups and find activities that will help group members to rebuild social contacts’



We anticipate that each group will meet 10 times. Meetings will be held at a venue near bus routes and with easy parking. There will be between 8 and 12 in a group. The groups will be run by our Counsellor/Support Worker Elvire Beijdorff . Who can attend? Anyone who has been bereaved can attend. There should be at least 3 months between the bereavement and the first meeting. Health professionals, friends and family can also make referrals, providing they have the consent of the bereaved person. Potential group members and referrers can contact us directly by calling Elvire on 07827 943272 or by calling PSF 01437 763223 and leaving a message.