A national study involving the University of Bedfordshire is calling for significant changes to the way bereavement support is designed and delivered, after finding that people from ethnically diverse communities continue to face substantial barriers when seeking help following the death of someone close to them.
Professor Gurch Randhawa, Director of the University of Bedfordshire’s Institute for Health and Wellbeing Research, was a co-applicant on the national research project, Equitable Bereavement Care for All, with the University playing a key role in the research conducted in Luton.
Published in the journal BMC Medicine, the study is one of the largest and most in-depth UK investigations into inequalities in access to bereavement support among ethnically diverse communities.
Researchers spoke to 121 bereaved people from 13 ethnic backgrounds across England, interviewed 23 staff and volunteers from 12 bereavement services, and worked with bereaved people, service providers and other stakeholders to develop recommendations for change. The research found that barriers to bereavement support are often rooted not in a reluctance among people from ethnically diverse communities to seek help, but in the way services themselves are designed, funded and delivered.
These barriers include a lack of culturally appropriate support, language difficulties, long waiting lists, limited diversity among staff, poor signposting and referral processes, and a lack of sustained funding for community-led organisations.
Experiences and fears of racism were also found to influence whether bereaved people could identify, trust and engage with available services, with some avoiding formal support altogether. The findings highlight the importance of moving beyond traditional models of bereavement care to develop services that better reflect the cultural, religious and social needs of the communities they serve.
Professor Randhawa said: “Bereavement support should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their ethnic or cultural background. Our research highlights that too many people face barriers when seeking support at one of the most difficult times in their lives. Through our work in Luton and nationally, we want to help ensure that services better reflect the needs of the communities they serve, and that nobody is left behind.”
The study identifies a number of practical changes needed to improve access to support, including greater investment in community-led bereavement organisations, more culturally informed and anti-racist approaches to care, better representation within the bereavement workforce, and stronger partnerships between mainstream services and trusted community organisations.
It also calls for national and local decision-makers to make equity a central part of bereavement policy, with improved monitoring of access, experiences and outcomes across different ethnic groups.
The University of Bedfordshire’s involvement reflects its commitment to research that works alongside communities and addresses inequalities in health and wellbeing. Luton was one of four locations involved in the research, alongside London, Sheffield and Leicester, with community researchers and local networks helping to ensure that the experiences of bereaved people informed the findings.
The study brought together a multidisciplinary team led by Dr Catriona Maryland at the University of Sheffield and Dr Sabrina Bajwah at King’s College London, alongside universities and community organisations across the UK, and was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme. This publication was led by Professor Lucy Selman from the University of Bristol.
