Bereavement

Adfam ran a joint project with Cruse Bereavement Care working with and supporting families, friends and carers who have been bereaved through drug or alcohol use.

The Bereaved through Alcohol and Drugs (BEAD) project began in October 2013 and ran for four years. Provided peer support to anyone that had lost someone as a result of substance use. Peer support volunteers went through an extensive training programme, to be able to support others going through a similar experience. Support was delivered 1:1 and through groups and over the course of the project over 200 people that had lost someone received support

It was funded by the Big Lottery. Adfam and Cruse would like to acknowledge and thank DrugFAM, Bereavement Through Addiction and the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath for their support.

Research

The first stage of the project consisted of consultation, mapping and research – read the results in our Drug and alcohol related bereavement – research scoping review (pdf) and our BEAD consultation findings (pdf).

Other sources of support

If you have been bereaved and are looking for support there are some services that can help on our useful organisations page and you can also watch Adfam’s support video below.

• DrugFAM offer a telephone helpline for families that have been bereaved as a result of a loved one’s drug/alcohol misuse phone 0300 888 3853, and they also run a quarterly support group: https://www.drugfam.co.uk/bereavement/
• Adfam and Alcohol Change UK co-produced an information toolkit on alcohol-related bereavement: https://alcoholchange.org.uk/alcohol-facts/fact-sheets/alcohol-related-bereavement, and Adfam published its own bereavement guide here: https://adfam.org.uk/files/docs/Adfam_Journeys-living-with-drug-or-alcohol-bereavement.pdf
• The Compassionate Friends have a resource and information on their website about dealing with a substance-related bereavement: https://www.tcf.org.uk/ftb-bereaved-by-substance-abuse/
• Cruse Bereavement Care run a telephone helpline for people that have been bereaved on 0808 808 1677
• A further list of Bereavement support organisations is available on our Useful Organisations page.