Highmark Caring Place partners with 20 Pennsylvania schools to make "grief support groups" available to children at school
PITTSBURGH (Dec. 3, 2014) —The Highmark Caring Place, a Center for Grieving Children, Adolescents and Their Families, has partnered with 20 schools in Pennsylvania to make new school-based "grief support groups" available to children who are grieving the death of a close family member.
Since 1997, the Highmark Caring Place has served children and families through its facilities in Erie, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Warrendale, Pa. At its facilities, the Caring Place offers peer-support groups, led by trained adult volunteers, that provide a safe environment where children can be with grieving peers, express their feelings about death and share memories of the person who died. In addition, support services are offered to parents and guardians of the children.
By partnering with schools to make peer-support services available to elementary, middle and high school students, the Caring Place is filling a gap in grief services available at school and making those services accessible to children and teens unable to travel to its facilities.
Following a pilot program in four schools, the Caring Place is now partnering with 16 additional schools in central and western Pennsylvania. In the schools, the Caring Place has trained qualified facilitators, including guidance counselors and teachers, to lead the grief support groups, a proven way of helping children to cope. Following a death, children can experience a range of grief-associated emotions including isolation, panic, anger, fear and sadness.
"Research shows that two-thirds of our school teachers have a child in their classroom who has lost a parent, guardian, sibling or close friend in the past year," explained Terese Vorsheck, director of the Highmark Caring Place. "But fewer than half feel they know how to support a grieving student, and very few schools have grief support programs.
"By partnering with schools, we can help support these kids. Through the grief support groups, we hope that children learn they're not alone, they have the support of their peers and school staff, and they can learn how to cope in healthy ways."
The Highmark Caring Place plans to continue implementation of the new school-based program, expanding it to an average of 30 Pennsylvania schools per school year.
"Working with the Highmark Caring Place, Mechanicsburg High School has implemented a grief support group through which we've served 11 students this year," said Gail Hiestand, a guidance counselor. "The group setting allows students to safely share their losses with one another and draw on each other for strength. Now, the students who participated earlier are reaching out to support students who have experienced a death recently. The 'pay it forward' concept has been beautiful to observe among the students."
Contact:
Janice Maszle
Highmark Caring Place (western Pa.)
412-544-7643
janice.maszle@highmarkhealth.org
David Misner
Highmark Caring Place (Harrisburg region)
717-302-3638
david.misner@highmark.com
