Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic have undoubtedly taken a toll on many people and – although it might be tough to see it – that includes kids.
This is among the reasons that Madawaska Valley Hospice Palliative Care is launching a new program to support children who are grieving.
Counsellor Dawn Cruchet says kids who are mourning the loss of a loved one need opportunities to talk about it, maybe even more so than an adult. She suspects many have been impacted by losing, and perhaps not having a chance to say goodbye to, grandparents.
“One of the things I’ve learned about grieving kids is that they feel so alone in their grief,” she says. “Nobody talks about it. A grief camp gives children who have experienced the death of someone close to them a chance to see that they’re not alone, to have the opportunity to talk about their grief, to learn from each other and to honour the memory of the person who has died.”
A one-day camp to support grieving kids is planned for Saturday, May 6 – but Hospice needs to see how much interest there is first and hopes families can reach out to them by March 24 to sign up.
The camp would be for of kids ages 5 to 17 and would give children a chance to speak about and find ways to memorialize a loved one who they’ve lost.
“Especially with COVID now, people have impacted by not being able to be present (at funerals),” Cruchet says. “If you’re grandfather died in another city and you weren’t able to see them (that would impact your grieving process). I think there’s a huge availability of grieving kids. Every classroom has grieving kids in it.”
Cruchet says the camp, to her knowledge, would be the first of its kind in Renfrew County.
More details on the camp are on the poser below. Also, Madawaska Valley Hospice Palliative Care is hosting a new grief support group for adults. The details are in the poster at the bottom.
