Child and Teen Grief Support Groups Resume Sept. 5

Hope Hospice is pleased to offer grief support groups for children and teens at no cost to residents in the Tri-Valley and neighboring East Bay communities. Groups meet at our Dublin office during the school year on the first and third Thursdays, 6 to 7:30 p.m. The next session is September 5, 2019, through May 21, 2020.

Consistent attendance is recommended to foster camaraderie and trust, but a specific start date is not mandatory. The youth program requires an initial brief assessment and pre-registration. Interested parents/guardians should reach out in advance to Hope’s Grief Support Center to schedule. Please call (925) 829-8770 or email griefsupport@hopehospice.com.

A parent or caregiver must remain on-site while the youth is attending group. That’s why Hope offers a support group for parents/guardians that runs concurrently. There, participants share experiences and resources, such as tips related to struggles with concentration in school or behavior issues.

Group meets at the Hope office: 6377 Clark Avenue, Dublin 94568. Free parking on-site. Hope offers this program for free, but donations are gratefully accepted and help us to continue to offer the service to others.

MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAM

“Kids grieve differently than adults, says Dawn Torre, Hope Hospice’s child and teen grief specialist. “Whereas adults are typically steeped in their grief, feeling emotions and analyzing the permanence of the loss around the clock, kids tend to drift in and out of the process.”

Depending on age, a child may have no frame of reference for what death means, or they may have times of sadness followed by days or even weeks when grief seems absent.

To meet this need in our local community, Hope offers a grief support program broken down into groups for ages 5–10, 11–13, and 14–18. The groups meet twice a month during the school year and provide opportunities for kids to be with peers who are going through a similar circumstance.

“Kids generally have at least one thing in common—they don’t like being different from their peers,” Torre says. “Having a deceased parent is unusual, and in some cases the child may be the recipient of negative comments or behaviors from other kids.”

Support groups for youth are not as talk-focused as an adult group. Creative activities can help kids better express emotions, or even just to start internally processing. For example, a recent art project was to decorate a memory box. Homework for the next session was to bring in an object that calls to mind a memory of their loved one and discuss the object with the group—or they don’t have to.