When responding to the death of a community member, it is essential to refer to your board’s policies (e.g. crisis response protocol, suicide postvention protocol, bereavement protocol). The offerings in this section are for consideration in conjunction with your board’s protocols.

Only trained clinicians can provide counselling, the role of the rest of the team will be to accompany the bereaved to offer pastoral care and support. This may be as simple as sitting with those who are grieving to let them know they are not alone. It may be difficult to determine how much support will be required or if you will need to bring in trained clinicians.