Service managers should ensure not only that all their staff receive training in death, loss and communication but also that staff are enabled to reflect on their practice, through emotional support, supervision and team discussions. Future work should focus on the development and testing of strategies to enable intellectual disability staff to support their clients in the areas of dying, death and bereavement.
Intellectual disabilities services must have clear staff training strategies around death, dying and communication. More work is needed to assess the resource implications and impact on practice of different training methods and other support strategies.
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