Bereavement Support After a Death: Why Funeral Information Should Include Help for Family and Friends Too

When someone dies, the practical process that follows is often well signposted.

Next of kin may be given information packs at the hospital or registrar’s office, including details about the Tell Us Once service, which helps notify organisations such as HMRC, the DVLA and the Passport Office.

This support is valuable and necessary - but it focuses mainly on administration.

It raises an important question:

Who tells grieving family and friends where to find bereavement support?

When a death happens, the impact reaches far beyond the person handling the legal paperwork or funeral arrangements. Bereavement affects children, siblings, parents, partners, friends, neighbours, colleagues, carers and entire communities.

Many of these people may not know where to turn if they are struggling with grief. Some may not even realise that support is available to them.

That is why bereavement signposting needs to become more visible in the places people already turn to after a death.

A simple idea: include bereavement support in funeral orders of service

For many traditional funerals, mourners receive an order of service to take away with them. This creates a meaningful opportunity to share support information in a gentle, practical way.

A funeral director, celebrant or printer could suggest adding a QR code to the back of the order of service, linking to a trusted source of bereavement support such as The Good Grief Trust. This gives everyone attending the funeral immediate access to information about support services, including national and local organisations.

For some people, that QR code may simply be reassuring. For others, it may become the first step towards finding help when grief begins to feel overwhelming.

Why a QR code for grief support could make a real difference to bereavement support.

Grief is rarely linear. A person may feel they are coping well in the first few days after a death, only to find the reality of loss becoming much harder later on. That may happen weeks, months or even years after the funeral.

Having a simple signpost to support available on an order of service means the information is already there when someone is ready for it.

This small addition could help:

• family members who are not the next of kin

• friends who feel isolated in their grief

• neighbours who have lost a close companion

• colleagues affected by the death of someone they worked with

• children and young people who need age-appropriate support

• anyone who attends the funeral and later realises they need help

Bereavement support should also be included in online obituaries and direct cremation notices

Not every family chooses a traditional funeral service. Some opt for a direct cremation, and many families share funeral notices or obituaries online rather than in printed form.

That does not mean support information has to be lost.

If an obituary, remembrance notice or funeral announcement is posted online, a link to bereavement support can easily be included in the post itself or in the comments. This ensures that even where there is no printed order of service, people still know where to go if they need support.

Who can help make bereavement support more visible?

This is something that could be adopted by many people and organisations who work with bereaved families, including:

• funeral directors

• celebrants

• churches and faith communities

• crematoria

• estate planning professionals

• florists

• printers

• hospices

• care homes

• solicitors and legal professionals

• community organisations supporting bereaved people

Anyone involved in supporting people after a death has an opportunity to make bereavement support easier to find.

How Found My Niche can help with bereavement support in Doncaster.

At Found My Niche, we believe support after bereavement should be easy to access, visible and shared as naturally as the practical guidance people receive after a death.

If you work with bereaved families and would like to include our details in your printed literature, funeral materials, digital resources or online notices, please feel free to get in touch through our website. You are very welcome to share our information, use our QR code or contact us to discuss how support signposting could be included in the resources you already provide.

Because when someone dies, it should not only be government departments who are told what happens next. The people left behind should also know where to turn for support.

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