Dawn Chaplin PhD, MSc, Dip Counselling, RGN

Birmingham has been Dawn’s home for nearly all of her working career so she was ideally qualified to be the Director of the Birmingham Bereavement Project. First as a nurse and then as manager of the bereavement services in both University Hospitals and Heart of England Foundation Trusts, she has developed excellent relationships of trust and cooperation with all the services providing care to bereaved families in and around the city. Her counselling training and experience means she is familiar with the long term aspects of bereavement to complement her experience of the immediate consequences gained while delivering services in acute hospitals.

Dawn’s experience and expertise is recognised nationally as evidenced by the range of organisations with which she is involved such as the Bereavement Services Association which she co-chairs and the Bereavement Research Forum of which she is vice-chair and the conferences at which she is often asked to present. In 2009 Dawn was awarded a PhD for her research on ‘Bereavement in the Abrahamic Faiths’ and she continues to work with faith communities at a national level to improve the appropriateness of bereavement services for different groups.

Dawn has now been appointed as Head Nurse for Patient Experience and Clinical Dean for Nursing at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, continuing her service to Birmingham.