Supporting Others

Jim – Helping by listening

Jim – ” I talk about how to be a good listener to someone who is grieving. I believe that one of the most important things you can do for someone who is grieving is to simply listen. Don’t try to fix their problems or offer advice. Just listen and be there for them. It can be as simple as meeting for coffee or taking a walk together. You’re doing more help than you realize when you simply listen to someone.

Community Grief Toolkit [Downloadable!]

This toolkit also reflects on how we support grief in the community. The tools to come together and honour our collective experiences and how to build the resources for further support.

Holly – How can we help someone who is grieving

Holly has some helpful tips how to help someone who is grieving

Ghosts From The Past

I met Holly riding the bus in our community. She is very attractive with a winsome smile and piercing eyes that I would trade anything for. She was also the bus driver. At that time Holly went to school to become a nurse. After becoming a nurse, Holly didn’t drive the bus that much, but one of her fellow bus drivers mentioned to me that one of Holly’s patients had died and it had a negative impact on her. It brought back ghosts from my past as I also had a job in which people died which had a negative impact on me.

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.

Grief and Parenting in the Disability Community

In this blog post, Carrie writes about being the parent and primary caregiver to a child with disabilities and grieving the loss of a child dying from their disabilities.

Amber – Talking to your kids about death

Amber talks about how important it is to talk about grief, especially with kids

Michele – Covid and virtual support

MIchele discuss support and how COVID has affected our grief in so many waysort

Amber – Keeping Dad’s memory alive

Amber tells how she set up a Dad adventure day to keep the memory of her father alive for her kids and husband

Keith – “How can you help”

Keith explains that by imagining being in someone’s position can show you practical ways of helping them.

Zoreena – Support systems

Zoreena explains the importance of support systems

Shannon – Enough

Shannon talks about us all doing the very best we can from the perspectives of a licensed clinical counselor and losing her husband to suicide.