Grieving Families
The death of a family member turns the lives of everyone in a family upside down. In addition, it turns the family upside down. The absence of the loved one who died affects every area of a family's existence. From the time of the death forward, everything changes-nothing is ever the same again. What was once whole is now broken.
Dealing with grief within a family brings difficult challenges. Each member is trying to manage their own feelings while being impacted by the reactions of the rest of the family members. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, and spouses collide with one another as they search for new ways to relate.
What was once known, is now unknown. Roles change - two parents becomes a single parent, siblings become only children, the middle child becomes the oldest child, grandma and grandpa become mom and dad. Traditions change-homemade birthday cakes become store bought, Christmas dinner is now eaten at a restaurant, anniversaries are no longer celebrated. Daily routines change-dinner is now eaten in front of the television, the house is quieter, mom cuts the grass, and dad cooks dinner.
The Highmark Caring Place is a family centered model based in the belief that grief not only affects the individuals in a family, but the family system as well. When a loved one dies, no member of the family escapes the devastating impact.
Being a family model provides the opportunity for the adults and children birth through high school graduation to attend sessions together. In addition to the support this provides for the family, this also relieves the burden, financial and otherwise, for families of very young children to arrange for child-care. For families driving from far distances (typically up to 75 minutes away) the option for everyone in the family to come to the session can be a deciding factor in their ability to attend.
So often following a death finding a way to talk about the heartache is difficult. Knowing how to start the conversation with one another and when to talk become issues to overcome. When a family attends the Caring Place the activities in which they participate during the sessions become ways to jumpstart the difficult process of sharing feelings and memories with one another. We often hear from families that the most important and meaningful conversations occur on the way home as they share what happened within their groups that night.
"I'm glad the Caring Place was here for myself and my daughter because I don't know how we would have gotten through the past year without it. I firmly believe the Caring Place has helped us heal."-Debbie, Caring Place participant, husband died from an illness
