Cruse Bereavement Care

Cruse Bereavement Care is the largest national charity for bereaved people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a sister organisation in Scotland. Cruse offers face-to-face, group, telephone, email and website support to people after someone close to them has died and works to enhance society's care of bereaved people.

Cruse has a freephone national helpline (0808 808 1677) and local services throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Cruse also has a specialist website for young people, hopeagain.org.uk. Cruse services are provided by trained volunteers and are confidential and free. Cruse also provides training and consultancy for organisations and for those who may come into contact with bereaved people in the course of their work[1]

Founded in 1959 in Richmond upon Thames, Cruse has areas and branches across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man. The first branch of Cruse Scotland opened in the late 1960s, and by the mid 1990s there were 28 branches.

Apart from a core of paid staff, based mainly at central office in Richmond upon Thames, services are provided mainly through locally co-ordinated groups, manned by 5,000 trained volunteers. In 2016/7, Cruse:[2]

• Gave one-to-one help to over 30,000 people
• Helped over 3000 in groups
• Supported over 5,000 children and young people
• Responded to nearly 70,000 requests for assistance

As an organisational member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, Cruse provides suitable training to all of its 5,000 bereavement support volunteers, following the rigorous code of ethics set out by BACP. Additionally, once certified, an additional 15hrs of additional training is provided per year. External training is also accredited by the National Counselling society.

Cruse also provides training and consultancy for external organisations and for those who may encounter bereaved people in the course of their work.[3]

• Royal Patrons: HM Queen Elizabeth II[4]
• Patrons: Rt Hon the Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone; Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster; The Right Revd Graham James, Lord Bishop of Norwich; Gisela Stuart MP; Ann Cryer; Baroness Kramer of Richmond Park; Dame Jo Williams; Mark Francois, MP; Lady Hannam [5]
• Life President: Dr Colin Murray Parkes OBE[6]

• Chief Executive: Steven Wibberley [7]
• Chief Operating Officer: Andy Langford
• Director, Cruse Wales: Janette Bourne
• Director, Cruse Northern Ireland: Paul Finnegan
• Director of Finance and Administration: James McCormack

• Cruse Bereavement Care
• Cruse Scotland website
• Cruse’s support website for young people, HopeAgain