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Teenagers are able to understand the abstract, and recognize that death is final and personal. Dealing with death can be difficult for adolescents and have an impact on all aspects of their daily lives. Their mood and overall coping can be profoundly affected. This can include alterations in their sleep pattern, how they interact with people... 

A physician’s role in caring for family members is integral to providing care to the patient, and continues from diagnosis, through the disease trajectory, treatment, end-of-life care and bereavement. Understanding how family members grieve and what can help them is also important. During the illness, the physician plays a key role in connecting... 

The illness or death of a student has a significant emotional impact on other students and teachers in the school or classroom. Providing opportunities to talk about the situation is part of the grieving and healing process for everyone. The information below provides some strategies for coping with a student’s illness or death. When a student... 

We suggest that you start by reading Talking with Children and Youth About Serious Illness , in the Topics section of our website. This article, written by our clinical team, will give you basic information on how to reach out to children who have someone close to them who is ill or dying. Our Books, Links, and More section lists a number... 

We suggest that you start by reading Talking with Children and Youth About Serious Illness , in the Topics section of our website. This article, written by our clinical team, will give you basic information on how to reach out to teenagers who have someone close to them who is ill and dying. Our Books, Links, and More section lists a number... 

In palliative care the family is recognized as the ‘unit of care’ and bereavement care is believed to be an integral component of the care we provide. Therefore, our responsibility in developing a comprehensive palliative care program should include offering bereavement care to the family following the death. It is generally agreed that grief... 

If health care providers are not part of a team where grief support services are provided, they can still engage in personal processes, such as journaling or connecting with others. The latter may involve debriefing with a trusted colleague or meeting privately with a counsellor on their own time. Many employment assistance programs across... 

When the bereavement debriefing session is a response to a traumatic or difficult death, it’s essential to create a safe environment in which staff can ask questions, exchange information, and share thoughts and feelings. A traumatic death debriefing session often works best when the patient care manager arranges it and attends. Using an open-ended... 

The nature and format of bereavement debriefing sessions will vary depending on who is involved, the purpose of the session, the event that precipitated it, and whether the session is a regularly scheduled review. Essential for an effective session is staff support. Be sure to involve people who can help create a safe environment in which...