England (Commonwealth Union) – The United Kingdom marked a significant milestone this year with Rishi Sunak becoming the second Prime Minister of ethnic origin after Benjamin Disraeli and the first South Asian and Hindu PM, together with other top government posts given to minority candidates. However, according to a new study, inequities remain in access to bereavement support.
Even as ethnic communities were immensely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, overall, the number of ethnic minorities did not increase, according to bereavement services. Research, led by the universities of Bristol and Cardiff, that appeared in Palliative Medicine, hoped to identify service providers’ viewpoints on the use of their support before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic had a severe effect in the UK, with increased mortality and bereavement rates in minority communities and groups with lower socio-economic status.
The UKRI/ESRC-funded research was conducted with an online survey completed by 147 UK voluntary and community sector bereavement services, together with 24 interviews with staff and volunteers in 14 chosen services. The findings saw 67.3 percent of voluntary and community sector bereavement services of the UK indicating there were population groups with unmet support requirements which faced obstacles to accessing their service before the pandemic, with minoritized ethnic groups most often indicated to require support but unable to access it.
Corresponding author, Dr Lucy Selman, Associate Professor from the Palliative and End of Life Care Research Group as well as the Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Bristol, stated that the voluntary and community sector bereavement services have a significant part in offering bereavement support to people who have lost loved ones in the UK. “It is crucial that bereavement services take steps to make the support they provide appropriate for diverse population groups,” she said, adding that they could raise awareness with advertising, and make attempts to do away with obstacles to accessing their support so that everyone in society can benefit.
