Helplines Awareness Day

Cruse Scotland is delighted to be involved in the first ever Helplines Awareness Day, launched today by the Helplines Partnership.

Since its early days in 2009, our national Helpline has continued to grow and develop - most significantly since becoming a freephone number in 2020.

This year, the Helpline team will respond to over 10,000 calls and emails – offering a mix of compassionate listening support directly to bereaved people and also offering information, resources and signposting to individuals and organisations who are not directly bereaved, but are supporting people who are.

Our Helpline calls are answered by a team of 50 volunteers based all across Scotland, and are supported by a small staff team. This team is a HUGE part of the wider work that Cruse Scotland gets involved in and offers very frontline, immediate support to people who find themselves facing the painful mix of emotions that grief brings.

Grief can often hit very suddenly and unexpectedly … or it can be something that has ongoing impact for a very long time. Our Helpline team offers listening support for anyone who has been bereaved - regardless of how long it has been since the death, no matter what the circumstances of the death are, and is available for anybody who is impacted by the death in any way.

Our Helpline has been a lifeline for many whether they are well supported amongst their community of family, friends and colleagues or where they feel that they have nowhere else to turn. Today we are celebrating all that our Helpline is for so many.

Please visit our social media channels across the day to hear from some of our volunteers, staff and clients who tell us what the Cruse Scotland Helpline means to them. Please share any of the content to help us reach those that may benefit from our free services but don't yet know about us or that we are here for when they need us.

#HelplinesAwarenessDay2023

Nicola Reed

Director of Client Services