Bereavement Professional

  • 1.  grief support groups

    Posted 11-04-2020 04:42 PM
    Hi there-
    I am wondering how other hospice agencies are offer community grief support to adults, kids, families and even in schools? Are you in person or all virtual? or both? what are group numbers and participation like?

    Also what kinds of issues have you come up against in running virtual groups? paperwork? confidentiality?  

    Thanks!

     

    Cate Jarvis, MA

    School Grief Support Counselor

    Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan

    2255 W. Centre Ave.

    Portage, MI 49024

    Cate.jarvis@hospiceswmi.org

    269-345-0273



  • 2.  RE: grief support groups

    Posted 11-05-2020 08:26 AM
    I'd love to see what others are doing as well.... Our community bereavement program is in its infancy so I'm basically working daily just to get the word out that we're here. Our hospice is affiliated with a hospital, and we have not been given the go-ahead to do any groups or in-person support with the exception of psychological first aid.

    Schools/kids: We recently experienced a teacher death in our community and I was invited to the school to provide grief support for the students (virtually) and staff (in-person). Right now I am about to start 2 virtual grief groups for children and teens in our area, referred from schools and community agencies.

    Hospice/medical community: Our hospice runs a COVID hotline for nursing home and assisted living staff members to call and "vent" (staffed by our chaplains, social workers, and bereavement personnel) and I'm trying to set up some virtual support groups for them as well. I have been given permission to provide virtual grief education and cumulative grief support to our volunteers and in-person debriefings to some of our nursing staff. I am also working with our hospital's chaplain to develop more specific virtual grief support groups within the hospital (OB, cancer, respiratory, palliative).

    Community at large: I'm working to get permission to begin an in-person walking grief group before the weather here gets too cold. Thankfully, I do have permission to meet 1:1 with individuals for grief counseling as the needs arise.

    Paperwork and documentation are also something that I'm trying to resolve - the bereaved that I work with don't have any affiliation with hospice, so no EMRs - no file in our system to tie the record to. Right now I'm documenting hours and encounters in an Excel spreadsheet SBAR style (situation, background, assessment, recommendation) until I am directed to do otherwise.

    I'm really curious to hear about what others are doing and how everyone is trying to work around COVID restrictions.


    ------------------------------
    Renee Beverlin, LPC-R
    Resident in Counseling
    Community Bereavement Coordinator
    Augusta Health, Hospice of the Shenandoah
    Fishersville, VA
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: grief support groups

    Posted 11-06-2020 09:29 AM
    Renee
    I LOVE all that you re doing in the community! Can you say a little more about this: runs a COVID hotline for nursing home and assisted living staff members 

    We did a one week national hotline in May for COvid and HC professionals, but wondered about doing it long term in terms of manpower, referrals to community resources, etc. So, here are my questions:
    Is it a Live hotline staffed by your brv specialists? 
    Do you have a separate number to call in?
    Is it 24/7 or is there a voicemail?
    How and where di you advertise it?
    How much usage have you gotten?
    How do you handle follow up needed? DO you care for them or refer and if refer, to whom?

    Thanks in advance!

    ------------------------------
    Robin Fiorelli LCSW
    Sr. Director of Bereavement and Volunteers
    VITAS
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: grief support groups

    Posted 11-06-2020 11:24 AM
    Robin,

    It was the brainchild of our talented Manager of Volunteer Services and Community Outreach! She designed a flyer to distribute to all of our facilities along with care/gift baskets and "Thinking of You" cards that everyone was able to sign. They are all being delivered this week.
    To answer your questions:

    Is it a Live hotline staffed by your brv specialists?      Yes! All of our social workers, chaplains, and brv staff signed up for "on call" time slots during the week.
    Do you have a separate number to call in? Yes, the number goes to a voicemail recording, they are prompted to leave a message and the person on call will follow up.
    Is it 24/7 or is there a voicemail? See above
    How and where do you advertise it? We have a flyer that the nurses and social workers distributed to all of the facilities to post in the break rooms, etc.
    How much usage have you gotten? We just started advertising the service, I'll let you know... :)
    How do you handle follow up needed? DO you care for them or refer and if refer, to whom? Our plan to provide virtual support per their request - either individually or groups.

    (I'm trying to upload the file - an image of our flyer - but having difficulty)

    ------------------------------
    Renee Beverlin, LPC-R
    Resident in Counseling
    Community Bereavement Coordinator
    Augusta Health, Hospice of the Shenandoah
    Fishersville, VA
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: grief support groups

    Posted 11-06-2020 12:28 PM
      |   view attached
    Here it is!

    ------------------------------
    Renee Beverlin, LPC-R
    Resident in Counseling
    Community Bereavement Coordinator
    Augusta Health, Hospice of the Shenandoah
    Fishersville, VA
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: grief support groups

    Posted 11-06-2020 01:05 PM

    The Dougy Center in Portlan, Oregon, has great student resources.

     

    Susan Coyle, M.Div., MA, CT

    Bereavement Services Coordinator

    St. Charles Hospice

    2500 NE Neff Rd

    Bend, OR 97701

    541.706.6700

    spcoyle@stcharleshealthcare.org

     

    Important Notice: This communication, including any attachment, contains information that may be confidential or privileged, and is intended solely for the entity or individual to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message is strictly prohibited.




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  • 7.  RE: grief support groups

    Posted 11-05-2020 09:00 AM
    Edited by Christine Mize 11-05-2020 09:01 AM
    We are currently in the middle of our six week support group. We are doing it in person at our office. We have attendees complete a health check list and we check temps. We require everyone to wear a ask and are seated at least 6' apart. We have 7 in the group. There's lots of talk by the attendees how covid 19 has influenced their grief.


    Hospice of Southern Illinois





    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: grief support groups

    Posted 11-05-2020 05:34 PM

    Hello!

     

    We have been offering virtual support groups with approx. 8-12 participants in each. We are able to use a platform in which all attendees can be seen. Our groups for now are adult only.

     

     

    Joelle Osterhaus, MSW, LCSW, LICSW, ACHP-SW (she/her)
    KPNW Hospice & Palliative Care Psychosocial Services Manager

    KPNW Interim Palliative Care Operations Manager

    Kaiser Permanente Northwest
    Continuing Care Services
    2701 NW Vaughn St., Ste. 140
    Portland, OR 97210-5344

    Cell Phone: (503) 312-0819
    Main Office: (503) 499-5200 or (800)448-0838

    Fax: (503) 499-5535

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  • 9.  RE: grief support groups

    Posted 11-05-2020 10:27 AM
    Our Pathways Center for Grief & Loss is part of our hospice agency. So of course hospice bereaved attend a lot of what we offer. But all our groups for adults or children are available to anyone in the community, even if their loved one didn't die on hospice care. Since we have been doing everything virtually since March we have found the #'s who attend the adult groups are a bit less than 1/2 the # who would attend when it was in person. Our family support series has not resumed because we don't have enough registering to  make it work. The numbers of children and teens we are supporting individually, virtually, has increased however ​, as has the # we provide adult virtual support to. And the length of the conversations by phone is longer than they were pre-pandemic.
         With any and everyone wanting virtual or phone support, regardless of whether they are hospice or community bereaved, we always document their consent fo service and mail an NPP with a SASE requesting they sign and return it. The most important part is that we document that we sent it out. If/when they are returned they are scanned in and added to the EMR. And other than documenting on their chart that they attended group, we don't document about clients when they attend a group session unless we specifically have a separate conversation with them before or after group.​

    ------------------------------
    Patti Anewalt, Director
    Pathways Center for Grief & Loss
    Hospice & Community Care
    Mount Joy, PA
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: grief support groups

    Posted 11-06-2020 11:50 AM
    Thank you all for your responses! Your responses have been very helpful in looking at where we are in our process of offering groups online and how to move through this time with supporting our grieving population. We have recently started our community support groups online. We have found that the numbers are low, 3-6 participants, but the appreciation from the participants is very high. We have also found that there is a lot to think through with offering groups on line. Not just the technology piece and hoping the you don't lose internet connection in the middle of an important part of someone's story, but also learning new ways to making groups interactive using technology. I am using Pear Deck and Google slides when working with kids and they really seem to adjust to this well. I am amazed by peoples willingness to try new things in the midst of their grieving process. Thanks again for your feedback.


    Cate Jarvis, MA



    School Grief Support Counselor

    Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan

    Oakland Centre

    2255 W. Centre Ave.

    Portage MI 49024

    269-345-0273

    cate.jarvis@hospcieswmi.org<mailto:cate.jarvis@hospcieswmi.org>



    This message, including any attachment(s), is confidential and is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is privileged or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you are notified that the dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you receive this message in error or are not the named recipient(s), please notify the sender at either the e-mail address or our central office (269) 345-0273 and delete this e-mail from your computer.


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