I am pleased to share my Fall 2022 Newsletter highlighting educational opportunities and my clinical work serving individuals, families, and healthcare providers facing complex illnesses, uncertainty and grief.
C. Elizabeth Dougherty Consulting Spring Newsletter
Loss in the Time of COVID: Exploring the Impact of Grief
Honoured to deliver Loss in the Time of COVID: Exploring the Impact of Grief as the Keynote address at Trillium Health Partners in support of National Hospice Palliative Care Week in Canada.
My sincere gratitude to everyone who joined our discussion via Zoom, for sharing time, reflections and energy - and for acknowledging the impact of trauma, loss and grief for healthcare providers as we continue to serve so many facing trauma, loss and grief during the pandemic.
10 for 10: Ten Activities for when emotions run high
10 for 10: Ten Activities for when emotions run high via NACG The Dougy Center & KinderCare
Parents and Caregivers, you can encourage use of this worksheet in a few different ways:
Children and teens can use it to choose any activity when their emotions are running high (a supportive reaction).
You can ask them to refer to it regularly and choose self-care activities at any time (a proactive response).
Children or teens can mark off the activities they do throughout the day/week (promoting a sense of accomplishment).
They can create and choose their own activity to help self-regulate (encouraging self-compassion & creativity).
They can also design their own self-care worksheet (exploring empowerment).
Source: https://childrengrieve.org/12-resource/309-resources-2
The ARQ of Grief Support
The ARQ of Grief Support:
Awareness
Reflection
Questions
The ARQ of Grief Support via NACG, The Dougy Center & KinderCare is a framework you can use to create meaningful, supportive interactions with children, teens and adults facing grief, loss & grieving
Source: https://childrengrieve.org/12-resource/309-resources-2
Supporting children and youth who have a family member with an advanced serious illness
Supporting children and youth who have a family member with an advanced serious illness via NACG The Dougy Center & KinderCare
At some point, we all encounter a child or teen who is living with the anxiety of a family member’s life-limiting illness. You can have the opportunity to be a support person, providing empathy as they face the serious illness, grief, loss and perhaps death, of a family member.
Some considerations include: Listen, Acknowledge, Understand, Provide Consistency, Help, Safety, Provide Resources
Source: https://childrengrieve.org/12-resource/309-resources-2
C. Elizabeth Dougherty Consulting - Winter 2022 Newsletter
I am honoured to share my winter 2022 newsletter with free resources for individuals and families of all ages facing a complex illness, following diagnosis through to bereavement.
I am also grateful to also share teaching experiences including: undergraduate and graduate Social Work Education; undergraduate interdisciplinary education; and Interprofessional Education for healthcare providers and volunteers exploring informed conversations, honouring person and family-centred care, demystifying grief, and advocating for high-quality palliative care.
What to say (and NOT to say) when someone is grieving
Most don't know what to say when someone is grieving. Here are some suggestions to offer a grieving parent, caregiver, or colleague. These questions can also be adapted for children.
via National Alliance for Grieving Children, The Dougy Center and KinderCare Education
C. Elizabeth Dougherty Consulting - Fall 2021 Newsletter
I am honoured to share my Fall 2021 newsletter including resources for individuals and families of all ages facing a complex illness, following diagnosis through to bereavement. I am also grateful to also share my teaching experiences including: undergraduate and graduate Social Work Education; undergraduate Medical Education; and Interprofessional Education for healthcare providers exploring informed conversations, honouring person and family-centred care, demystifying grief, and advocating for palliative care.
Demystifying Hospice Palliative Care is essential!
National Hospice Palliative Care Week in Canada is May 2nd-8th, 2021.
Proactive and equitable access to Hospice Palliative Care is not standard, with barriers (including a lack of education, funding and research) contributing to the myths that impact delivering high-quality person and family-centred collaborative care. Integrated support for loss, grief and bereavement is lacking.
Did you know....
-Between 62% and 89% of those who die could benefit from palliative care, including nearly everyone who does not die unexpectedly
- 51% of the children who died in 2012 only received Paediatric Palliative Care for the last 30 days of their lives
-62% of Canadians who received palliative care did so in an acute care hospital in their last month of life
-Few Canadians (15%) have early access to palliative care in the community
-80% of the time, palliative care was provided during admission was unplanned or through an emergency department
-Canadians between the ages of 45 and 74 are more likely than younger adults and older seniors to receive palliative care
-There are ~88 residential hospices and the majority require a prognosis of <3 months to be admitted
Source: CHPCA Fact Sheet 2021
For more information, please visit the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association
Thrilled to host "How We Talk About Grief" at gritLIT!
Am truly honoured to host “How We Talk About Grief” on behalf of The 100% Certainty Project. Death: Something to Talk About for gritLIT 2021. I am thrilled to meet both Dakshana Bascaramurty and Christa Couture and explore their experiences with loss and grief as we discuss their exquisite memoirs.
An all-too-familiar certainty, grief is an emotion that’s difficult for most of us to put into words. In This Is Not the End of Me, Dakshana Bascaramurty documents the final years of a husband and father diagnosed with terminal cancer at age 33. In How to Lose Everything, Christa Couture shares her own excruciating loss, including the amputation of her leg as a cure for bone cancer and the death of two children.
Join me on April 18th at 2pm as I ask these brilliant authors to discuss the challenges of talking and writing about grief and how the process of doing so helps with healing.
#gritLIT2021
Excited to be on Faculty for Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative Care (LEAP) McMaster
Excited to be on Faculty for this exciting collaboration. Join us for this Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative Care (#LEAP) #CPD!
Pallium Canada and the Division of Palliative Care, Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University have partnered to create a unique #online #learning opportunity for #healthcare professionals.
This is a unique #opportunity to continue learning about the #palliative care approach. The #workshop addresses contemporary topics of relevance to care providers across many care settings including #hospital, #community and #residential care, as well as special challenges encountered during transitions in care.
These #workshops are ideal for any health care professional (e.g. #Physician, #Nurse, #SocialWorker, #Pharmacist, etc.) who would like continued learning on the #PalliativeCare approach.
Session topics include:
- Recap of the Palliative Care Approach
- Unique Situations
- Transitions in Long-Term Care
- In-Depth Conversations
- Advanced Liver and Heart Diseases
- Kidney and Neurological Diseases
In recognition of the hard work of health care professionals throughout the #COVID19 pandemic, the price for these sessions has been reduced.
Visit: https://pallium.myshopify.com/collections/palliative-care-in-depth-workshop
C. Elizabeth Dougherty Consulting Newsletter Winter 2021
Honoured to share my Winter 2021 newsletter including resources for individuals and families of all ages facing a complex illness, from diagnosis through to bereavement. Grateful to also share undergraduate and graduate Social Work education, along with medical education and interprofessional education for healthcare providers demystifying palliative care.
Free M.A.i.D Bereavement Support Group (online)
This Virtual MAiD Bereavement Support Group is free and offered to anyone (+18yo) in Ontario following the death of a loved one via MAiD. While we wish we could offer this group in-person, the support will now be provided online in light of COVID-19 restrictions.
Am grateful to be part of the development team and one of the co-facilitators for this group. This group is being co-facilitated by myself and a spiritual care provider and is limited in that we can only offer unilingual support (English speaking). We also appreciate this means that someone must have access to a phone or WiFi and understand that not everyone has that luxury.
People can self-refer. The program will run for 4 weeks starting November 25th. We intentionally take a break over the holidays and reconvene to offer the remaining 4 weeks in January to continue to process and honour the range of loss experiences and explore compassionately moving forward.
The contact information for self-referral is on the attached poster. Spaces are limited. For more information, call (905) 521 2100 x73621 or email adras@hhsc.ca
November 17th is National Bereavement Day 2020 in Canada
Grief and bereavement support is an essential element of care for individuals and families of all ages.
This year, the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA) invites Canadians on a shared journey that fosters compassion and encourages them to cope with their grief by supporting each other through living and grieving. We might be physically distant, but grief brings us together. We learn to live with the loss and grief in ways that maintain and honour our bond with the person who died but don’t limit our capacity for joy, pleasure and a meaningful life. At this trying time, we might be physically distant, but we are emotionally, spiritually and socially connected through our grief. Source: CHPCA
For more information, visit: CHPCA
In support of Movember, a free webinar demystifying Advance Care Planning for Men with Prostate Cancer
In support of Movember Canada & TrueNTH, am sharing a free webinar demystifying Advance Care Planning for Men with Prostate Cancer.
Facing prostate cancer is difficult enough. But advance care planning (ACP) can give your loved ones the confidence and peace of mind to make healthcare decisions for you if you are unable to communicate for yourself. This webinar will provide information about why ACP is important, and a step-by-step guide to advance care planning.
The purpose of this workshop is to:
- Provide an overview of ACP
- Foster understanding as to why ACP is important for anyone facing prostate cancer,
- Help men with prostate cancer, their partners and families learn the steps involved in the ACP process, and how to start these conversations,
- Explore some free ACP resources from Advance Care Planning Canada
The free webinar can be accessed via https://vimeo.com/189996475
C. Elizabeth Dougherty Consulting 2020 Newsletter
Living with Added Uncertainty and Isolation
Due to COVID-19, many people are experiencing an additional sense of grief and loss when faced with a cancer diagnosis. How can people with cancer and their loved ones tend to these difficult feelings during this time? Honoured to have offered Living with Added Uncertainty and Isolation for the CANCER AND COVID-19 WEBINAR SERIES for the Canadian Cancer Society.
In this free webinar, we discuss how COVID-19 has impacted the experience of uncertainty and isolation for people living with cancer and their loved ones, along with some strategies to address thoughts and feelings and some available free resources.
Loss in the time of COVID: Exploring the Impact of Grief in the Year of the Nurse
I am deeply grateful to Nurses everywhere - for all that you do for so many and am truly honoured to join the compassionate clinicians in the Palliative Care Nurses Interest Group for the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) virtual AGM on June 11th 2020 to present “Loss in the time of COVID: Exploring the Impact of Grief in the Year of the Nurse”.
Support for Grieving Young Adults (ages 18-30)
Actively Moving Forward® (AMF) is a network created in response to the needs of grieving young adults (ages 18-30) and is connecting, supporting, empowering grieving young adults to “actively move forward” in memory of their person.
Now, a FREE AMF app offers new ways to connect!
“You’ll have full access to facilitated virtual support groups, tools, resources, reading, videos, supportive quotes, community engagement via direct messaging, group chats, posts and interactive comment boards. Group members may be tagged by person in their life that died so that members grieving a similar death loss can easily find each other.”
Time to connect on a whole new level. Deepen friendships, engage with groups, simplified chats, find events, webinars and a host of other valuable and helpful resources.
To register for this app and access FREE bereavement support, visit Actively Moving Forward®