Under the restrictions that were enforced by the Government during the crisis, funerals and cremations may be disrupted or delayed. The number of family members permitted to attend a funeral may have been limited. Many people who are grieving the death of someone close may have been in isolation and unable to attend funerals. This may have caused a great deal of upset and trauma.

This information was published at the height of the pandemic, however we hope this advice may still be useful:

https://www.cruse.org.uk/coronavirus/funerals

Thank you to Poppy's Funerals for offering updates on advice and guidance. . Please click this link for their blog.

Here’s what a funeral director wants you to know during Covid-19

Please click this link for more general information on funerals;
https://www.thegoodgrieftrust.org/need-know-info/funerals/

The Quaker Social Action have some advice for organising a funeral during this crisis;

Coronavirus - organising a meaningful funeral 

Cremations

https://www.mortlakecrematorium.org/coronavirus/

Advice from Cruse; COPING IF YOU HAVE TO MISS A FUNERAL

• Ask the funeral director if the service can be recorded or live streamed
• Write or record a message to be played
• Set aside the time while the funeral is taking place to have your own memorial at home
• Ask someone who is attending to call you afterwards
• Hold your own memorial at a later date when the restrictions are lifted
• Contact the Cruse Freephone National Helpline 0808 808 1677

Regular Weekly Sunday /Wednesday/Friday Virtual Cafes - 12 noon - 1pm

The Good Grief Trust have adapted their Pop Up Cafes, to open new online face to face support groups.  Offering a virtual hug over a cup of tea in your own home.  You are most welcome to pop along for a chat, stay as long as you would like, or sit in and say nothing, but just listen, whatever feels right for you is fine.

These Cafes are safe, closed meeting places run via Zoom. You will be sent a password and login details.

We want to make you feel comfortable and able to open up about your grief with others who understand.

For more details on our Cafes; Good Grief Pop Up Cafes 

Please book your place here Hello@nullthegoodgrieftrust.org

RECORDING VOICE MAILS & SAVING PHOTOS

We urge you to consider thinking about recording messages from a mobile phone, or transferring and/or printing photos from a device before or soon after your relative or friend dies.

We have had many comments from the bereaved, to say how devastating it can be to find out that weeks after you lose someone you love, their voices have been erased from phones and precious photos are lost.

Please see our Things to Consider page for more general suggestions; https://www.thegoodgrieftrust.org/need-know-info/things-to-consider/

MANAGING ANXIETY AND GRIEF DURING THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

Julia Samuel MBE is a psychotherapist specialising in grief, who has spent the last twenty-five years working with bereaved families.

The upheavals caused by the virus on day-to-day life — on our social lives, work routines, schools and childcare — are causing great anxiety, she says, exacerbated by the fact that there is no “template” for dealing with a pandemic. There is a general sense, she says, that “there’s no one in charge that we know is going to sort it. There’s no saviour.” Social media is only compounding anxiety. Rather than catastrophise about an unknown future, she recommends keeping plans on a short timeline: “Don’t project into weeks and months ahead, plan today.” New structures are important too: “We’re very habitual beings. The coffee that you buy, the route that you take, the clothes that you get, even the thoughts that you have down a particular street. You have them habitually as you get to the office. We have to create new structures and habits that give you a sense of agency and efficacy.”

Some of our usual coping mechanisms — alcohol, drugs, promiscuity or extreme busyness — are particularly unhelpful: “If you block pain, you block joy and the capacity to experience all feelings.” Instead, it’s healthier to acknowledge our difficult feelings, with support from friends and family, alongside exercise.

‘Grief Works’ is a compassionate book demonstrating how an examined death is as important as an examined life. It shows us through vivid case studies, that when we face our fears: the death of someone we love, our own death or being with bereaved friends, we are paradoxically, better able to cope with them.
Read more

Our Library

Please see Our Library page for more suggestions for books which may help;
https://www.thegoodgrieftrust.org/our-library/

Mental Health Foundation - General Information

Rethink Mental Illness -  Great practical advice for those living with mental illness and those caring
for someone with a mental illness

Mental Health UK - How to have a conversation with youngsters about Covid-19

Mental Health UK -  A selection of helpful blog posts

A lot of therapists are offering discounted rates to keyworkers during this time, so that is something
for people to explore.

NHS staff to have free access to wellbeing apps until the of 2020: Headspace, Unmind and Sleepio and Daylight 

Royal College of Nursing - Advice to Nurses to protect their mental health

NHS - Top Tips to look after your mental wellbeing during this time

Mates in Mind - Homeworking Mental Health Tips

@rwl on Instagram are offering a free mindset course that you can access online.

@ImPaulMckenna on Twitter- Paul Mckenna has some mindfulness advice to cope during this time

There are lots of online exercise classes that are completely free, by exercising that will help release
endorphins which will in turn improve our mood. There are classes for Yoga, Dance classes to HIIT sessions.

You can also listen to a range of body scan meditations by searching for these on You tube,
completely for free. This is a very useful resource and can help if you are struggling to sleep due to
this anxiety inducing time.

Thank you to teacher Claire Copersino for this article and suggestions for yoga positions to help after a bereavement. She is a yoga teacher in Greeport, New York. To learn more, visit northforkyogashala.com.

She says; 'during the course of all of our lives, we will inevitably experience grief that stops us in our tracks, both literally and metaphorically. When this happens, it can be tempting to distract ourselves instead of processing our emotions. But when we embark on a regular yoga practice, we begin to release the stuck, stagnant energy that results from unprocessed feelings. I designed this sequence to help you open your hips—a particularly potent area when it comes to unearthing and releasing stored emotions—and to help you turn your pain and grief into fearlessness and compassion'.

https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/15-poses-to-open-your-heart-again-after-grief

Yoga for Anxiety - 20 minute Practice - Yoga with Adriene
We have been recommended to share this Youtube channel to guide you through yoga moves to help with a bereavement
https://youtu.be/bJJWArRfKa0

Grief Yoga - Healing Through an Ancient Art - Psychology Today
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/understanding-grief/201806/grief-yoga

The Yoga poses that healed my pain
'I didn't know that grief commonly returns, that this was my body marking the anniversary of the death of my dad the year before. It was with this sadness that I arrived one day in October at a yoga studio, neither strong nor flexible, surrounded by people whose bodies seemed as lithe as dancers' (I've found out since that some of them are dancers)'

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-yoga-poses-that-healed-my-pain-8652763.html