People from ethnically diverse communities can face significant barriers when seeking bereavement support, with research involving people in Luton calling for changes to make services more accessible and culturally appropriate.
The national study, involving the University of Bedfordshire, found that difficulties accessing help are often rooted not in a reluctance to seek support but in the way services are designed, funded and delivered.
Luton was one of four locations involved in the research, alongside London, Sheffield and Leicester, with community researchers and local networks helping to ensure the experiences of bereaved people were included.
Researchers spoke to 121 bereaved people from 13 ethnic backgrounds across England, as well as interviewing 23 staff and volunteers from 12 bereavement services.
The findings identified a range of barriers, including a lack of culturally appropriate support, language difficulties, long waiting lists, limited diversity among staff and poor signposting and referral processes.
Experiences and fears of racism were also found to influence whether people could identify, trust and engage with available services, with some avoiding formal support altogether.
Professor Gurch Randhawa, Director of the University of Bedfordshire’s Institute for Health and Wellbeing Research and a co-applicant on the project, said: “Bereavement support should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their ethnic or cultural background.
“Our research highlights that too many people face barriers when seeking support at one of the most difficult times in their lives. Through our work in Luton and nationally, we want to help ensure that services better reflect the needs of the communities they serve, and that nobody is left behind.”
The study calls for greater investment in community-led bereavement organisations, more culturally informed and anti-racist approaches to care, better representation within the bereavement workforce and stronger partnerships between mainstream services and trusted community organisations.
It also recommends that national and local decision-makers make equality a central part of bereavement policy, including better monitoring of access to services and the experiences and outcomes of people from different ethnic groups.
Published in the journal BMC Medicine, the research project, Equitable Bereavement Care for All, was led by Dr Catriona Maryland at the University of Sheffield and Dr Sabrina Bajwah at King’s College London. The publication was led by Professor Lucy Selman from the University of Bristol.
The project was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Policy Research Programme.
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