University of Bristol debuts The Grief Centre
Research will focus on issues such as: equity, diversity and widening access to bereavement support and grief or sorrow that is hidden or not acknowledged by society
The Centre for Grief Research and Community Engagement at the University of Bristol was officially launched yesterday (24 April) with the aim of shifting public attitudes towards grief and providing support for people who are bereaved.
The Grief Centre is due to deliver its first in-person public engagement event during Dying Matters Awareness Week between 5 and 11 May.
As the first of its kind in the UK, this centre will focus on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research into grief, death and loss, to increase understanding of these fundamental aspects of being human and provide space for new ideas and approaches.
It will also bring researchers together with people from diverse communities, artists and creatives, voluntary and community sector organisations, health and social care services, policy makers and funders to develop interventions and knowledge exchange initiatives to “change the way grief and death are seen, supported and discussed”.
Funded by Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, The Grief Centre will be co-directed by Lucy Selman, professor of palliative and end of life care at the Palliative and End of Life Care Research Group and Centre for Academic Primary Care, and Dr Lesel Dawson, associate professor in literature and culture in the university’s department of English.
Research will focus on issues such as: equity, diversity and widening access to bereavement support; support for bereaved children and young people; grief or sorrow that is hidden or not acknowledged by society; the therapeutic role of creativity in grief; community-based approaches to bereavement support; and co-production and community-led research.
Selman and Dawson are also co-founders of Good Grief Festival, a public engagement and grief literacy initiative, and collaborators on a £2.4m arts and humanities research council funded national partnership to tackle coastal health inequalities.
Through the Good Grief Festival platform, the centre will also offer public courses on grief and bereavement to build grief literacy, and develop training for both professionals and academics to grow their skills in supporting and doing research with people who are bereaved.
Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor of the University of Bristol, said: “The new Grief Centre will strengthen the University of Bristol’s commitment to civic involvement through collaborations with local charities, communities, faith groups and artists. It will be further enriched by the wealth of University of Bristol academics who work on topics related to grief, loss, death and the end of life.”