Children and Family Bereavement
“The Healing Circle” -- for those who are Grieving:
The word “healing” has many meanings. There is healing in the traditional sense, which means “to cure.” On a deeper level, healing can refer to nourishing the spirit and rebuilding during and after a time of pain...
Grief is a natural response to the many losses associated with death and dying. It often begins with the initial realization that a loved one is dying, and is an ongoing, changing process that cannot be rushed.
The death of someone we love turns our world upside down. It takes time to accept the reality and adjust to the many changes and losses. It is a great challenge to recreate our life again. Time alone does not heal. The daily choices we make, and active support we seek, all serve to optimize the healing process.
Hospice Care Network provides a caring and safe environment staffed by compassionate professionals and volunteers to help you through your period of bereavement. Bereavement services are routinely provided for the families who have been in our hospice program. They are also extended to families on other hospice programs as well as any individuals within the community who are experiencing loss.
Bereavement Support includes:
- Phone contact and phone counseling
- Periodic educational mailings
- Group Counseling – “Coping with Grief” (an 8-week support program for varying ages and losses)
- Individual Counseling (short-term bereavement support by appointment)
- Next Step – “Living with Grief” (a 12-month educational support program)
- Memorial Services
- Professional Community Referrals
- Community Education – bereavement workshops, inservices and trainings
- Crisis Intervention – assessment and consultation for sudden loss in community settings
Children’s Bereavement Program – “The Healing Circle”
The death of a loved one is a difficult and challenging life experience at any age, but perhaps none of us are more vulnerable than the children. For children, the experience is just as painful and often even more difficult to understand.
Recognizing the unique needs of grieving children, the “Healing Circle,” a children’s bereavement program at Hospice Care Network, provides counseling, peer interaction group support and education as children and their parents/caregivers navigate their journey through grief. Support groups are held regularly and are co-facilitated by compassionate professionals and specially trained volunteers.
The Healing Circle offers:
- Tiny Hearts for children ages 4-7
- High Hopes for children ages 8-12
- Teens Together for ages 13-18
Remember that Children…
- Do not always have the vocabulary to verbalize grief
- Appear to be unaffected by grief at times
- Grieve depending upon age and developmental level
- Often delay their own grief process to protect others
The Healing Circle utilizes Multi-Therapeutic Modes of Intervention:
- Storytelling
- Art
- Creative Writing
- Visualization
- Drama and imagination
- Puppetry
- Game Playing
- Open Discussing
Hospice Care Network Bereavement Services offer:
- Individual Counseling
- Short-Term Counseling
- Group Support
- Crisis Intervention
- School Outreach
- Community Education
- Lending Library
- Professional Referrals
Hospice Care Network’s Children’s Bereavement program is available for any child living in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens – regardless of prior involvement with the hospice program.
HIPAA - Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (1996) creates national standards to protect individuals’ medical records and other personal health information. This law was enacted to protect patient privacy and improve the security, accuracy and integrity of the electronic transmission of health information. HIPAA provisions affect providers (that means Hospice Care Network), payers, and all other entities that share in the exchange of health information. This new law requires that a privacy notice be given to all patients and makes it illegal to release health information to inappropriate parties, or fail to adequately protect health information from release. If violated, civil and criminal penalties can be incurred.
My family and I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to each and everyone of the wonderful people who cared for my husband. He was always treated with devoted and kind hands and was made as comfortable and pain free as possible. 
