The Social Construction of Bereavement Support In Voluntary Organisations

This qualitative, phenomenological study focuses on the social construction of bereavement support in voluntary organisations. Three organisations were selected for the research project. These were an adult hospice, a local branch of Cruse, and PEAL (Parents Experiencing Adult Loss); an organisation unique to the locale at the time that the research for this study was conducted. Grounded theory research methodology was used to identify how these organisations construct their services. A key feature of this is their use of volunteers as bereavement supporters.
The prime objective of the study was identification of the social construction of these three agencies. In particular the intention was to reveal features contributing to the shaping of their service provision. To this end the research design was developed with the aim of allowing respondents scope for self-expression.
Twenty, one-to-one, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted and audio-taped with self-selected respondents from the three agencies. The core category to emerge from the data was „boundaries‟ which was further divisible into commonly held properties classifiable as personal, professional, organisational and societal. Each of these were sub dividable, forming what might be referred to as a family tree. Underpinning this framework of boundaries is a common psychological approach to service provision which draws on the Freudian tradition in counselling. A further feature in their commonality is that of the profile of the volunteer workforce which is drawn largely from a mono-cultural, middle class sector of the community.
The central contention of the thesis is that in this instance, boundaries have become a significant influence on the shaping of service provision. It is argued that an overriding individualist perspective can serve to ensure that traditional boundaries are established and maintained, making a more diverse approach to service provision difficult to attain.
Key words: boundaries (personal, professional, organisational, societal); social construction; bereavement support; grounded theory; individualism; power; culture; volunteer motivation.