About the Bereavement Charity AtaLoss
Winners of Two Acquisition International Awards 2023 and Two Care UK Business Awards 2024
AtaLoss was established as a bereavement charity in 2016, to ensure that no one in the UK should be left without support when someone dies.
Our mission is to change the culture of bereavement, so that every bereaved person can have timely and holistic support, to navigate their grief and changed circumstances for healthy outcomes.
The UK faces a silent epidemic. Each year over 600,000 deaths leave some six million people bereaved, in a society that has been ‘death denying’ and has largely neglected bereavement support. Death impacts people practically, physically, psychologically, spiritually and emotionally, affecting their health, relationships and behaviour. Everyone will face this reality, yet communities offer inadequate support and help and is hard to find.
The consequences are far-reaching:
One in three people experience a serious impact on their mental health after a significant bereavement.
86% report feeling severely vulnerable in their grief.
Unsupported grief can contribute to job- loss, debt, low attainment, loneliness, homelessness, addiction, relationship breakdown and crime.
Usually, counselling is the only recognised help, and waiting lists are often up to 18 months. However, 85-90% of bereaved people will navigate their grief healthily without the need of therapists if they can access timely support.
What We Do
AtaLoss delivers a comprehensive, non-clinical approach to bereavement support, tackling the first three tiers of the adult bereavement care pyramid. We aim to provide all-round support to the majority of bereaved people, addressing the national gap. Our three-pronged approach of awareness, signposting and community support helps bereaved people to rebuild their lives, prevents long term problems and helps resolve root causes of issues, taking pressure off therapists.
Bereavement awareness
We challenge the cultural silence around death by securing regular media coverage, training leaders and influencing policy to build a grief-literate society. Contact us for media enquiries.
As Secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Grief Support and the Impact of Death on Society, we are advocating for national recognition of bereavement as a public health priority. Read more about the APPG.
Signposting and information
This award-winning platform AtaLoss.org is a UK-wide signposting service for anyone bereaved, or offering bereavement support. Visited by over 15,000 people a month and with over 2,000 listed services and resources, it helps bereaved people find timely support and information for their needs.
We are aiming for a ‘Gold Standard’ of comprehensive information and are becoming nationally recognised and trusted: featured on Government and local authority websites, the BBC and other national media, as well as leading mental health and charity platforms.
The service is also becoming widely used by funeral directors, social prescribers and healthcare providers – especially mental health services.
Independent evaluation confirms its value to users - 86% say they find it helpful. Read more about our Gold Standard.
Community support
We train and equip organisations to regain the lost art of community bereavement support: for adults by training managers and professionals and through our flagship programme, The Bereavement Journey®; and for children and young people through our Listening People project.
Read more about our bereavement support training.
Read more about Listening People.
The Bereavement Journey®, is a structured, volunteer-led peer group programme, supporting adults to process a death, whether recent or long ago. Delivered by churches for their communities and ourselves nationally online, it offers help with the range of bereavement challenges, uniquely including optional spiritual support, a widely neglected aspect of grief. Read more about The Bereavement Journey®.
Along with our signposting, the programme is appreciated by adults of all ages, faith and background, and is proven to transform wellbeing. Read our Impact Report.
By uniquely combining awareness with signposting and community help AtaLoss is setting a new standard for holistic bereavement care.
What People Say
“After the training I finally felt able to sit with young people in their grief rather than avoid it. They opened up in ways I had never seen before.” - Youth Worker on the Listening People training
“I felt comfortable and at ease throughout, hence would recommend this to anyone with a recent or long term loss, whether the journey is a difficult one or not. As someone with a different faith to the majority, I was able to self-reflect on my belief systems whilst also able to share thoughts with respect.” - Ahmed, NHS worker. The Bereavement Journey® Participant
“The senior nurse for bereavement came to me after one of the sessions…and she said, ‘I’ve been watching them every single week and they are visibly starting to look different as they leave.’ And at the end, she came back to me, and she said there is a massive change.” - Dean Roberts, The Bereavement Journey® Course Leader
