How helpful is counselling for people bereaved through a substance-related death?

Abstract Background: The research investigated how helpful counselling was for people who self-identify as being bereaved through a substance-related death. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty bereaved participants. Interview data underwent a thematic analysis using Iterative Categorisation (Neale, 2016). Findings and conclusions: Participants’ needs were many, varied and changed over time. They used many types of support to meet these needs. Both one-to-one and group counselling were helpful and each was used to meet different needs. Significant needs regarding the substance-related characteristics of these bereavements were often not recognised by participants and seemingly also their counsellors, so were not worked through. Unhelpful experiences of counselling occurred through poor practice and a lack of specialist knowledge about these bereavements. Recommendations: Nine are given to improve the helpfulness of counselling for these bereaved people, including recognising and working with the substance-related characteristics of bereavements or referring clients to other services for these.