Gathering what is known about bereavement, carefully
Understanding Bereavement publishes open, fully-sourced research on bereavement in the UK, free for anyone to read, cite and reuse. Our first library is about children and young people whose parent has died.
What this site does
The evidence about bereaved children and families sits in many places: official statistics, peer-reviewed studies, government reviews, and the reports of charities and services who work with families every day. Much of it is hard to find, and some of it is out of date or quoted without its source.
So we gather it, check every figure against the place it was published, date it, and give it away. The charities, hospices and schools-facing services supporting bereaved children often need that evidence for a funding bid, a consultation response or a conversation with a commissioner; the research library is there so they do not have to assemble it themselves.
Who we are
Understanding Bereavement is run by the two of us, Rachael and Jamie, from our cottage in Wales. We research, check and maintain everything published here ourselves. It is a small, independent site: there is no team behind it and no organisation above it.
We are not a support service
We publish research. We cannot offer counselling or bereavement support, and nothing here is a substitute for it. If you are grieving, or supporting a child who is, the organisations listed under where to find support are there to help. If you need to talk to someone now, Samaritans are free to call on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, day or night.
How the research is put together
- Published evidence, not estimates
- Figures come from official statistics and peer-reviewed work. Where a figure is contested, missing or estimated from weak data, the study says so rather than picking the number that reads best.
- Cited where it is used
- Every study lists its sources, so you can check a figure against the original instead of taking our word for it.
- Checked twice
- Each study is checked by a second, independent review against its sources before it is published.
- Careful language
- Plain words, “died” rather than euphemism, and bereavement by suicide written about in line with the Samaritans’ media guidelines.
How this site is paid for
We are a commercial business, not a charity, and we would rather you heard that from us. Alongside the research we publish plain guides to UK life insurance. When a reader asks to be put in touch, we pass their enquiry to one selected FCA-authorised life insurance broker, who may pay us for that introduction. That referral income is what pays for the research and the hosting that keeps it online.
We are not an insurer, an insurance broker or an FCA-authorised firm, and we do not give financial advice; the broker is responsible for any regulated advice. No insurer, broker or sponsor has any say in what the research says, and nothing in the library is sponsored. We keep the two apart on purpose: the research pages carry no enquiry forms and no prompts to buy anything.
Using and citing the research
Everything in the library is free for charities, campaigners, journalists, schools and researchers to read, cite and link to. If you need a figure cut a different way, want the sources behind something, or think we have a number wrong, tell us. Corrections are the most useful thing anyone can send, and one of us will reply.
The research summarises other people’s published work; it is not original clinical research, and it is not medical, legal or financial advice.