£3m awarded to bereavement charities across Wales

Charities supporting people through bereavement will benefit from £3m in funding over the next three years the Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Lynne Neagle has announced today.

Sadly bereavement is something that will touch all our lives and charities and third sector organisation across Wales provide vital support.

In October last year the Deputy Minister outlined the National Framework for the Delivery of Bereavement Care in Wales, which was underpinned by a £1m per annum support grant for charities and support groups to apply for.

21 charities will receive funding via the grant over the next three years. The organisations awarded cover a wide range of areas and will provide funding for a variety of support, including providing help to children and young people who have lost a loved one and funding training for volunteers to help them support the bereaved.

The Deputy Minister visited the charity 2Wish to find out more about how they will use the grant funding for an all Wales support project that will ensure immediate support is offered to individuals affected by the sudden death of a child or young person.

Rhian Mannings MBE, founder and CEO of 2Wish, said:

Following the success of our petition and the commitment of Welsh Government to offer immediate support to families, this funding will help us make our service available to everyone as it is vital that at such a difficult time that support is immediately available.

Here at 2Wish we have been working for over a decade to support Welsh families who have lost a child. We’ve seen first-hand the trauma these families go through and the help that they so desperately need at this time of crisis. So, it is great to see the Minister is announcing this grant funding, so that we, and charities like us, can carry on this vital work and offer immediate help and counselling.

Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Lynne Neagle, said:

The funding I’m announcing today I hope with enable charities and organisations to provide further comfort to those grieving. The work of all 21 organisations awarded is so vital and I want to pay tribute to the work they do. Bereavement affects us all in different ways, its important that the £3m funding covers a cross section of organisations who will utilise the money in their own way to provide emotional help, advice and support.

Those awarded funding from the Bereavement Support Grant are:

·        Sandy Bear Children’s Bereavement Charity

·        Nightingale House Hospice

·        Paul Sartori Foundation

·        Tŷ Hafan Children’s Hospice

·        Sands (Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society)

·        Aberystwyth and District Hospice at Home Volunteers (HAHAV)

·        Mid & North Powys Mind

·        Tẏ Gobaith and Hope House Children’s Hospices

·        Platform

·        Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Mental Health Support

·        Cruse Bereavement Support

·        Marie Curie

·        Diverse Cymru

·        Age Cymru

·        City Hospice, Cardiff

·        Ponthafren Association

·        2Wish

·        ACE – Action in Caerau and Ely

·        Llamau

·        The DPJ Foundation

·        Options Pregnancy Crisis and Post Abortion Service (IPAC Options)