Supporting Others

Matt – Telling my young son

Matt describes the death of his birth mother to his young son.

Tips for Grieving During the Holidays

The holidays can bring up a lot of feelings, especially when you’re grieving the loss of a loved one. Whether it’s the first holiday season without someone, the holidays mark a time where someone you love died, or it’s just hard to be around celebration when you’re not feeling celebratory, December can feel heavy.

These are a few tips for grieving during the holidays.

Alongside

That is also our best, and only role, when supporting a person with a developmental disability to grieve. We must be the one that comes alongside. There is no closer place we can get to. We must be present, be with, perhaps not understanding or comprehending what the person we support is experiencing, but alongside them nonetheless. We must be there, ready to provide whatever we can discover of their unique need in grief.

Lisa – How to support someone in grief

Lisa shares what was helpful from other people when she was grieving

Amber -Helping someone who is grieving

Amber talks about how her grief has helped her learn how support other people in grief.

Jean – Be good to yourself

Jean shares about support and not being hard on yourself

Sarah K – Talking to my kids

Sarah discusses the challenges of discussing her kids about their Dad;s death to heroin and helping them on their journey through grief

Cara – The real issues for grieving people with intellectual disabilities

Cara provides some context for the real issue of grief in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and those supporting them, including that we consider that there’s not a lot of education or information out there about how best to support someone with an intellectual disability who is grieving.

Kate – Time to process

Kate shares about time and processing her grief especially during COVID

Cara – Intellectual disabilities and advance planning

Cara explains that people living with intellectual disabilities are growing to older ages, much like the rest of the population. And as folks are aging what we’re seeing is the need for families more so than ever, to do some advanced planning for who will take over any caregiving decision making or where that person may live, what sort of support they may need and what that’s going to look like after the parents or the guardians die so that this doesn’t become a crisis situation.

John Martin – Loss and Grief – Be Careful What You Say to Someone Who Hurts

John discusses how what you say to a griever is very important

Kate – Trust and listening

Kate – explains how having someone you trust is super important so that you can have a space space to go to