Swindon and Wiltshire Support After Suicide
Important Update About Swindon and Wiltshire Support after Suicide Service.
We wanted to let you know about an important change to the Swindon and Wiltshire Support after Suicide Service. From Monday 3rd November 2025, the service will be provided by Swindon & Gloucestershire Mind. This change has been carefully planned to ensure that people affected by suicide continue to receive the highest quality support.
At Rethink Mental Illness, we are proud to have been part of your support journey and are working closely with S&G Mind to make the transition smooth. Your care will continue without interruption, and you will continue to be supported by a service that is understanding, safe, and committed to your well-being.
If you have any questions about this change, please speak to your Bereavement Worker. We are here to help and make sure you feel supported throughout the process.
We hope you continue to receive the care and understanding you need and wish you strength and support as you move forward.
About why we are here
We know that when someone close to us dies, the grief that is experienced can bring about a range of powerful and complex feelings.
We also know that each person's experience of bereavement is unique to them but when someone dies by suicide, the powerful feelings become more complex, increase considerably and bring about many other practical issues to deal with.
We know that people bereaved by suicide need support at the time that is right for them – we support people at any stage of bereavement, including immediately after your loss or in the longer term when you feel ready to access support.
How to refer and access support
To make a initial referral or to refer yourself you can complete this referral form and return this to us, Alternatively you can call our Wiltshire Access Service who will take your referral information on - 07483 301214 or email: sandwsupportaftersuicide@rethink.org
We can help you complete the referral form (or you can complete this yourself), and we can start identifying ways in which we can provide you with the help you need.
What support do we offer?
We offer one-to-one emotional and practical support through face-to-face sessions, online, or by telephone—tailored to suit your preferences. Support with a specialist Suicide Bereavement Worker is provided over six person-centred weekly sessions, followed by six bi-weekly sessions, and then six-monthly sessions. Additionally, we can offer support around key dates and anniversaries, should this be helpful to you.
A little bit more about the one to one support we provide
- Person-centred, emotional support to talk about the bereavement, discuss coping strategies and find ways of dealing with your loss.
- Practical support including help to navigate processes e.g. police, funeral arrangements, inquests, the media, notifying companies of the death and support to talk to your employer.
- Signposting and referral to other services.
- Providing verbal and written information about bereavement by suicide and other related matters.
A little bit more about the one to one support we provide
- Person-centred, emotional support to talk about the bereavement, discuss coping strategies and find ways of dealing with your loss.
- Practical support including help to navigate processes e.g. police, funeral arrangements, inquests, the media, notifying companies of the death and support to talk to your employer.
- Signposting and referral to other services.
- Providing verbal and written information about bereavement by suicide and other related matters.
Suicide bereavement training for health and social care professionals
We deliver free suicide bereavement training workshops to health and social care professionals working across Swindon and Wiltshire.
These are held in various different locations and are run throughout the year.
If you would like to attend one of these sessions then please get in touch with us to find out the next available dates.
Useful resources, training and factsheets
We have collated information on a range of downloadable useful booklets, factsheets, online training courses about suicide bereavement.
This includes
- How to cope with suicidal thoughts
- How to help someone else who is feeling suicide
- How to cope with dealing with loss after bereavement by suicide
- Help is at Hand Booklet
You can view them by clicking here.
We have also created some blogs on social media around different aspects of bereavement which you can read here:
We obtained a grant from the Department of Health Social Care Suicide Prevention Fund to create suicide bereavement literature into other languages
The grant helped us to translate the English version of the Suicide - Coping With Loss factsheet into the 10 most spoken non-English languages in the UK. This is to make sure that people from BAME communities and people whose nationality is not English have access to bereavement information in their own language. The new languages include Arabic, Spanish, French, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu, Polish, Portuguese and Chinese.
The link above takes you to the English version that can be read online or downloaded into a PDF. If you scroll down to the overview section you will see clickable links to download the factsheet in the non English languages.
We want to know who has accessed these translated factsheets and its usefulness. So we would be extremely grateful if you could complete this anonymous survey which takes less than 5 minutes to complete.
Find us on Facebook
You can keep in touch with us on social media by following our Facebook page which you can find here.
Swindon and Wiltshire Support After Suicide Service Leaflet