Bereavement Counsellor
Job Description
Job summary
Are you a compassionate and experienced counsellor looking to make a real difference in the lives of individuals and families affected by loss?
We are seeking a dedicated Bereavement Counsellor to join our Patient and Family Support Team. In this rewarding role, you will provide emotional and psychological support to bereaved individuals and families across North Cumbria, helping them navigate one of life's most challenging experiences.
About the Role
As part of our multidisciplinary team, you will:
- Provide specialist bereavement counselling and support to individuals and families.
- Deliver counselling face-to-face and via telephone.
- Support adults, children and family groups experiencing loss and grief.
- Build trusting therapeutic relationships with clients.
- Conduct assessments and provide appropriate bereavement interventions.
- Maintain confidential and accurate records in line with professional standards.
- Work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure the highest quality of care and support.
- Participate in regular professional supervision and continuing professional development.
Main duties of the job
About You
You will be a skilled and empathetic professional with:
Essential Requirements
- Degree, diploma or equivalent professional counselling qualification.
- Professional registration and evidence of ongoing professional development.
- Experience providing emotional support to individuals experiencing loss.
- Experience working with children, adults and families.
- Knowledge of grief, loss and bereavement theories and their therapeutic application.
- Strong assessment, communication and case management skills.
- Understanding of end-of-life care issues and confidentiality requirements.
Desirable
- BACP or UKCP registration.
- Experience working in palliative care, hospice care or bereavement services.
- Experience in a healthcare setting.
- Knowledge of counselling approaches such as CBT.
- Experience working directly with children.
About us
Eden Valley Hospice has an Adult Inpatient Unit with 10 beds. The hospice is well-known in the community for providing end-of-life care, however, we also care for a significant number of patients by helping them to manage their painful symptoms before they move on to another care setting or home.
Jigsaw is Cumbria's only children's hospice, supporting babies, children and young adults living with complex medical and lifelimiting conditions, offering person-centred care and supporting their family, friends and carers.
Our Values in Action
The hospice is guided by our core values:
- Caring delivering compassionate care tailored to each individual
- Respect valuing dignity, choice, and individuality
- Innovative continuously improving and developing our services
- Inclusive creating a welcoming environment for all
We are proud to be a workplace where our staff feel supported, valued, and empowered to grow.
What We Offer
- The opportunity to make a lasting impact on patients, families and communities.
- A supportive and collaborative multidisciplinary environment.
- Regular professional supervision.
- Opportunities for ongoing learning and development.
- Flexible working arrangements to meet service needs.
- Free on-site parking
- Access to our Employee Assistance Programme
- For eligible applicants, continued membership of the NHS Pension Scheme
Please note this role is subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check.
Job responsibilities
Job Summary:
This post forms part of the Patient and Family Support Team (PFST) which provides emotional, psychological, spiritual and social support to hospice patients and their close support networks.
Main Responsibilities of the Post.
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To work with all members of the Multi-Disciplinary Team providing bereavement support.
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To engage in the provision of bereavement support and advice with individuals and families in North Cumbria, providing a supportive approach, which is appropriate to client needs.
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Providing counselling face to face or over the telephone.
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Working with individuals, families or groups.
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Building a relationship of trust and respect with clients.
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Listening to clients' concerns, empathising with them, and helping them to see things more clearly or in a different way.
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Ensure confidentiality and sensitivity when supporting patients and families.
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Work flexibly to meet the needs of the service, including occasional evenings or weekends if required.
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Attend regular supervision sessions with the Family Support Team.
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Maintain accurate records of support provided, ensuring compliance with hospice policies.
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Maintain standards in accordance with best practice as defined by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and Bereavement Care Standards UK Project.
Health and Safety
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All employees have a duty to take reasonable care to avoid injury to themselves and others. They are to make themselves aware of the Eden Valley Hospice Health and Safety Policy and procedures, thus ensuring a safe working environment. Line Managers are responsible to promote working safely and ensuring that their team are carrying out duties in a safe manner.
Safeguarding
All staff and volunteers are responsible for understanding their responsibilities for safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults in accordance with their job role and any requirements they are obliged to follow as members of their profession.
All employees should make themselves aware of the policies and procedures of safeguarding, take personal responsibility as far as is reasonably practicable, to safeguard children and vulnerable adults, complete statutory and mandatory training and take appropriate action as set out in the Hospices policies and procedures.
Data Protection and Confidentiality
All employees have a responsibility in line with information governance to maintain confidentiality and ensure the principles of the Data Protection Act 2018 are applied to patients, clients, staff,volunteersand Hospice business information, including electronic information. Only information required to fulfil the duties of the role should be accessed by the post holder.
All employees have a responsibility to use electronic systems in a way that preserves the dignity and privacy of people, helps to ensure services of the highest quality, and is compliant with the law and Hospice policies and procedures
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Training
All employees are expected to keep their mandatory training up to date. Line Managers are responsible for ensuring their team have adequate time and resources to ensure all mandated training requirements are completed. Annual appraisals areto be completed in a timely manner, in which relevant development and training requirements are identified.
The range of duties and responsibilities outlined above are indicative only and are intended to give a broad flavour of the range and type of duties that will be allocated. They are subject to modification in the light of changing service demands and the development requirements of the post holder.
Person Specification
Skills and Abilities
Essential
- Ability to carry out initial assessment of clients with complex loss and or multiple issues, face to face or by phone
- Skills to identify and apply suitable support models in order to provide bereavement support to individuals
- Ability to oversee a caseload, allocating cases to others as required and ensuring relevant standards are met.
- Work independently with clients and manage own case load within policy and time constraints
- Excellent organisational and administrative skills
- Excellent communication (written and verbal) and negotiation skills including proven ability to listen, empathise and advocate
- Energy, drive and resilience, ability to implement change
- Ability to deal effectively with all types of conflicts
Desirable
- Computer skills to enable record keeping
- High quality interpersonal skills in ...
