Vivian Dodge, Executive Director of Chapters Health Hospice, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the work the organization does.
A new children’s bereavement program began in late fall of 2023.
Dodge said, “It’s a program that provides grief support for children and teens. So starting about the age of 8 through 18. You know, losing a loved one is difficult, even for us as adults, but to a child, it can be quite isolating and be extremely, extremely difficult. There was a study by Judy’s House.org, which is a national children’s bereavement entity that revealed that one in 12 Children in Florida will experience the death of a parent or a sibling by the age of 18. That’s pretty dramatic when you think that that statistic does not include other relatives neighbors, friends, so one and 12 have a death of a parent or a sibling by the age of 18. We felt strongly that children’s bereavement was an underserved and unmet need in Monroe County. It’s important because addressing grief with children can have a positive impact on how a person responds to future loss later in their life.”
What are the differences children experience with grief as opposed to adults?
Dodge explained, “Children actually process their grief differently than we do. Many of them will grieve what I call in spurts, they’ll be perfectly happy, normal playing for a couple days, and then suddenly, they stop. Or it might be for a couple hours. A child’s grief also can manifest itself emotionally through anger, sadness, behavioral issues, so they start misbehaving, they start acting out, their school studies start to drop, it affects their performance. We also see that many kids start to withdraw and isolate themselves from others. They’ll become disengaged, they don’t really feel like playing their sports, they don’t feel like really going to that event. We see that a lot. Unfortunately, we do have a pretty high suicide rate here in Florida and in the Keys. I think that affects more of our teens. A teen who has experienced a suicide of a friend starts to often feel very guilty, and may not know how to cope with such a devastating event. An adult, we can sit and talk about our feelings, a child doesn’t do it the same way as we do.”
Children can also experience additional stress during bereavement.
Dodge said, “Some of the strategies that we use, counseling is based on age appropriate methodologies. So smaller children, younger children will express themselves to activities or other ways than just talking. We’ve developed these little backpacks, age appropriate backpacks, that we give to the kids that are undergoing counseling, and inside are some activities and other items that our counselor can use to bring out their feelings.”
How does a person get referrals or learn of a child needing bereavement?
Dodge said, “First of all, if it’s a hospice patient who’s died who has a teen or child in the house, or a grandkid, we’re automatically kind of looking out for them. But we also collaborate with Monroe County School system, their counselors and their staff, and we will receive calls from them regarding children that they know have experienced a loss, regardless of whether they were under hospice, and we also target some of the churches as well, if they know of a family member whose congregant knows that their child is not doing well. So we have a variety of ways and I have to give a lot of credit to Monroe County School System. They’ve been very supportive of this program.”
Is there a cost for a service?
Dodge said, “No, the program is free for children in Monroe County. Even if the loss is unrelated to hospice. Our goal is really to help children and teens, restore some hope, offer ways to cope with their grief, and offer support not only to those children, those kids, but to their families as well. How can we help those families bring out the best in their child if they’re grieving as well? That’s an important strategy to.”
Can individuals help? Are there volunteer opportunities?
Dodge said, “There are always opportunities to volunteer for hospice and yes, if they wanted to do something like this, then we would have to have special training. But there are other ways that individuals can volunteer. April is National Volunteer month. This is National Hospice Volunteer week. So a shout out to all those hospice volunteers. I want to acknowledge the incredible impact they have and they make on the lives of others. Thank you to all the volunteers, not only in hospice, but all the volunteers that work in our different agencies throughout the Keys. Volunteers give their time and talents willingly and we would all be lost without them. So thank you, all your volunteers out there.”
For more information, click here: https://www.chaptershealth.org/care-support/hospice-care/the-florida-keys/