The responses to loss are never orderly and entirely predictable and they are influenced by the following:
Age
Current health situation
Relationship with the person who has died
Concurrent losses
Life experience
Personality
Support systems
Ability to communicate feelings
Cultural background and upbringing
Spiritual and religious beliefs
Onsite Training Programs
To Help You Provide ...
Abbotsford Hospice Society Support offers cost-effective training programs for
the provision of grief and bereavement support in organisations and institutions.
Utilizing a "Train the Trainer" approach, Hospice staff and community experts provide onsite
instruction for your personnel, from manager to frontline worker. Programs are designed to meet
the specific needs of your in-house community, with training initially facilitated by experienced
and qualified Hospice staff and, subsequently, delivered by your own trained facilitators.
For information regarding "Train the Trainer", please
email or call us at
(602) 852-2456.
Bereavement Support Services
Free Services for BEREAVEMENT CLIENTS / FAMILIES / CAREGIVERS
There is no charge for any of our support groups, but participants MUST REGISTER — please call Kelly at 604.852.2456, or
email info@abbotsfordhospice.org.
One-to-One Services
Support for Adults, Teens and Children
Trained Abbotsford Hospice Society (AHS) volunteers provide one to one peer support for bereaved clients in a variety of settings.
For more on this, see Children & Families.
Community Crisis Support
AHS staff can assist community groups in facilitating support meetings or providing one to one support in times of crisis.
Emergency Room Support
AHS staff and volunteers will visit the Abbotsford Regional Hospital emergency room to provide support to families and friends
of emergency room patients who are anticipating a death.
In Person or Phone Counselling
In certain circumstances AHS staff will provide counselling through a registered clinical counsellor.
Facilities Visitation
AHS volunteers provide support for families of patients in the Tertiary Palliative Care Unit (Abbotsford Regional Hospital)
and at the Christine Morrison Hospice residence in Mission, B.C.
Support Groups
Ongoing
Adult Support and Share
Facilitated support group for adults who have recently lost a significant person to death.
Perinatal Loss Support Group
Facilitated by a registered clinical counselor, this group offers sharing and mutual support for parents who have lost a
child to miscarriage, stillbirth or within the first year of life.
Supporting Children Through Music
Creative music program provides a warm, friendly, nurturing atmosphere for children who are grieving the death of someone
they love or for those children with complex grief issues.
Depending on Community need,
the following groups may be offered:
In her work as a public health nurse and as co-ordinator of the post-partum depression team, Paula Jacobs has met many
women who have lost a baby.
Debbie Lehmann (left) of the Abbotsford Hospice Society, and Paula Jacobs, facilitator of the new Perinatal Loss Support
Group, show a sample of a "memory box" that the group will use to help grieving parents memorialize their baby. Image and text credit:The Chilliwack Progress
She would give these women and their partners the limited support she could but was frustrated that there were no ongoing
services to refer them to.
No longer. Jacobs has partnered with the Abbotsford Hospice Society to offer the Perinatal Loss Support Group.
The monthly group met for the first time on Tuesday of this week. It is open to anyone who has lost an infant to miscarriage,
stillbirth or within the first year of life.
Jacobs, who is also a registered counsellor, facilitates the sessions. Her hope is that people have a comfortable place to
express their grief.
"It's an opportunity for healing, a safe environment to talk about their anger, their fears, their loss of hopes and dreams,"
she said... [Read more]
