Facing the end of a life is full of losses.  Professional care providers have a responsibility to guide families facing end of life, but often feel ill equipped for this intimate and demanding role.  Together, we will explore how to utilize relevant grief related concepts, such as anticipatory grief, chronic sorrow, non-finite loss, the Dual Process Model and meaning making in a palliative care context, and to support families undergoing such difficult transitions.  We will follow a compelling case study to explore how to address gently the many challenges that families face, and will practice our helping skills in breakout sessions.  We will explore the power of creative intervention, such as the crafting of musical playlists, to assist families in navigating a loved one’s final days.  Key to this work is building circles of care both between  community-based experts, families and medical teams on the one hand, and within the family system on the other.  Finally, we will consider the impact of this work on our own lives by discussing compassion fatigue, parallel process and the gift of post traumatic growth.

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Discuss our professional responsibility to support end of life discussions;

• Summarize strategies for effective end of life discussions to be applied to an actual case study;

• Practice skills for supporting families at end of life; and

• Describe the gift of working at the end of life on our own personal and professional lives.

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Note:  Completion of this module and return of the Responsive Journal satisfies 1 Case Study leading to Certification in Family-Focused Grief Therapy.

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PROGRAM CONTENT

This program contains the following video segments:

1. Holding On and Letting Go:  Re-weaving Strands of Meaning (35 mins)

2. The Circle of Care Model:  A Case Study (47 mins)

3. The Collaborative Stance:  Welcoming All Parts (44 mins)

4. Heart-Centered Practice:  Caring for the Healers (36 mins)

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COURSE PACK CONTAINS...

• A PDF copy of the presentation slides;

• Template for helping clients create a Loss Box and facilitate individual and family discussion on the contents;

• Template for supporting clients in using musical playlists to facilitate meaning making and legacy building related to illness and nonfinite losses; and

• The Responsive Journal that, upon completion and return, confers 1 credit of Case Study leading to Certification in Family-Focused Grief Therapy.