Charity awarded £20,000 to support Wigan residents struggling with bereavement

The charity will offer a fully funded telephone counselling service for adults over the age of 18. The service is totally free of charge and delivered by trained professional counsellors’ specialist in bereavement.

Paul Growney CEO of Caring Connections, said: “We set up the counselling service over six years ago originally as specialist service for individuals bereaved through suicide.

"However, over time and especially post-pandemic, the amount of people needing specialist support for managing their grief grew massively.

"So as a service we expanded out to general bereavement but specialist in anything complex. Our service was constantly over-subscribed with a waiting list of people whom were unable to wait the NHS waiting times and not able to pay high private counselling costs.

"Over the course of the service, we have provided easily 10,000 plus fully-funded sessions and proud we can continue to expand and support Wigan residents.”

The service is called The Barbara Bettle Foundation, established in memory of Barbara who lost her life to suicide. It was founded when a gap in support for people needing counselling support for bereavement by suicide was identified. It started in Knowsley but has now expanded to several parts of the North West.

The service is set to relaunch on March 24 when it will be open to new referrals. It encourages self-referrals, however also supports referrals from health/social care professionals and community organisations.

To refer please contact 01942 597077 or email [email protected], remembering that the service does not start until March 24.