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• The moment when someone is notified of the death of a close family member can be the most important in their lives.
• News of a loved-one's death is one of the deepest traumas human beings can experience. It can have a very powerful emotional and physical impact — immediate or delayed — on those receiving the information.
• How the news is conveyed can significantly influence how an individual or family deals with the trauma afterwards.
• Only if absolutely unavoidable should you deliver such a message by telephone. This must be done in person before the news has been reported in the media.
• It's important that there are two of you to do this. Take a colleague with you — for mutual support, and for practical reasons (e.g. helping look after children).
• If you cannot deliver the message in person and in time, you might wish to contact the local police to ask them to do this for you.
• Note also that if you are telling a family that a colleague is missing, and that you are seriously worried for their safety, then this is also best done in person and not by telephone.
• Under no circumstances should you let the bereaved drive themselves anywhere after receiving this communication.
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This booklet is intended to offer informal guidance in circumstances where journalists, their editors or managers are required to tell next-of-kin of the death of a colleague. The advice is based on the experience and training of London 's Metropolitan Police and the BBC. Neither the Dart Centre, nor the Metropolitan Police nor the BBC accept any responsibility for actions or outcomes which may follow from use of this document. |
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