A qualitative study of bereavement support volunteers’ views and experiences on an online Acceptance and commitment therapy-based (ACT) training programme

by Anne Canny, David Gillanders, Tamzin Burnett, Brooke Swash, Juliet Spiller, Emily Harrop, Lucy Selman, Nicola Reed, Anne Finucane

Background

Grief is a natural process, and many people will adjust in time with support from family and friends. However, evidence suggests that around 40% of bereaved people may benefit from additional assistance, including support from bereavement volunteers. Despite the recognition that bereavement care is a public health priority, availability of bereavement support is inconsistent across the UK and internationally. The continuing expansion of online connectivity offers opportunities to develop digital health interventions to help address the needs of grieving individuals. To improve access to bereavement support, we developed an online intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment therapy-based Training (ACT) ‘My Grief My Way’ and trained volunteers to provide bereavement support in line with ACT-based principles.

Aim

To describe the views and experiences of bereavement support volunteers who undertook online ACT-based bereavement support training designed to help bereaved individuals cope with grief and improve quality of life.

Design

Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with a convenience sample of bereavement support volunteers from two not-for-profit bereavement services in UK. Analysis was guided by the framework approach via NVivo-14.

Results

A total of 17 participants were recruited; age range 33–76 years, female, n = 15 (88%); ethnicity white, n = 17 (100%). Of these, 15 completed ACT-based My Grief My Way training. Nine participants took part in two focus groups (n = 7) or individual interviews (n = 2), Training was perceived positively, with resulting themes and subthemes indicating there was something to suit everyone’s learning preferences. Participants described the benefits of incorporating ACT-based principles and strategies as valuable additional tools to current practice, underlining the model’s relevance, compatibility and practical application, and was viewed as a good fit irrespective of which therapeutic approach they used with clients. Online ACT-based training and the delivery of ACT-based bereavement support was therefore, perceived as a valuable approach in this context.