Bereavement Services

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:09 pm on 12 March 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:09, 12 March 2019

Those are important points, Llywydd, that the Member makes. To be bereaved by suicide does bring with it a whole set of additional issues that families who are left behind have to grapple with and themselves are often a cause of mental health concerns for those families themselves. So, I entirely recognise the points that the Member makes. Of course, the health service does work with a wide range of third sector organisations, and in some fields—and this is certainly one of them—it is often the case that families would rather be in touch with an organisation outside the more formal constraints of public services. And through Cruse Bereavement Care and through the Samaritans, we do provide assistance to the third sector in relation to suicide prevention and bereavement counselling, and the Minister has committed funding of £0.5 million a year to continue to support national and regional approaches to tackling suicide and self-harm prevention. The study that I mentioned, and I know the Member was aware of it—we've already decided that there will be a particular focus within the study on services to support those who have had a sudden unexplained death or a death by suicide of someone in their family or close to them. And, of course, I'm very happy to continue to discuss these matters with my colleague Vaughan Gething as that work matures.