A comparison of bereavement services provided in hospice and palliative care settings in Australia, the UK and the USA.

Bereavement support services are recognised as an integral part of hospices and palliative care services. Exploratory surveys on the nature of such services have been conducted in recent years in several countries, including the USA, UK and Australia. The purpose of this paper is to compare the main findings of these surveys and to offer preliminary suggestions on how to improve this component of care both within and across these three countries. Through this comparison, a number of common aspects of service delivery were highlighted. Common difficulties were also found, including low numbers of paid staff, variations in specialist training, insufficient levels of funding, and the lack of the use of validated bereavement assessment tools. Bereavement support is an important aspect of hospice and palliative care service delivery. In all countries, further research and policy development is required to address the common difficulties