Grief impacts the most vulnerable groups in society
Who supports them?
Welcome to GRIT – Grief-Related Intervention Training.
Through GRIT CIC, we are working on innovative projects to provide education about grief and related issues, including suicide intervention, substance abuse relapse prevention, and trauma awareness – to some of the most isolated and vulnerable groups in society: the prison/ex-offender population, and those who care for them.
Grief impacts these individuals in uniquely challenging, painful ways, because of their vulnerable status, complex needs, and lack of community. Often the bereavements they suffer involve suicide or substance misuse, both of which create complicated and long-lasting grief responses, and the ripple effect often causes further deaths from the same causes, unless they have the right kind of support.
We will soon be launching special campaigns to reach these groups, working closely with voluntary organisations and staff members in prisons, probation, and the social work field. This will include the use of innovative pocket guides to grief, which pack a big punch into a small leaflet sized packet. The content is easy to understand, but covers the key points about what grief feels like, what to expect, ways to cope, and who to reach out to for further support.
These interventions are made directly, to this population, and indirectly, through those who care for them. Our goal is to reduce the behaviours that result from unresolved grief: antisocial behaviour, violence, addiction, re-offending, self-harm, and suicide.
We are currently looking for partners to help us expand the scope and remit of this urgently needed project. If you’d like to discuss how you can support this work, please get in touch, we are always looking to work with partners who want to make a difference. Email us to find out more.
We believe in the transformation that is possible when people receive grief support and education. We all have that piece of grit burrowed under our skin. It hurts. It never lets us forget that it is there. But after a while we learn we don’t want to forget it’s there. Because it’s been transformed into something of great value. This is what all of us working in the grief community have done: we’ve taken the most painful, lifechanging losses, and we’ve grown around them. We’ve found a way to make meaning out of our grief. We love hearing other people’s stories, so here’s one of ours….