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~ Grief AIDE ~
This website contains a variety of different Grief
AIDEs including information, techniques for coping, resources, and links
to other websites. More than just a bandaid that covers and protects a
wound as it heals, griefaides help in the healing process. Grief AIDEs
help people understand and work through the grief process to get through
the shock, the loss and the grief reaction and ultimately emerge transformed.
They are also provided to serve as online aides in times of life crisis
or life savers on the Internet, helping visitors keep afloat until help
arrives or they are able to paddle into shore.
Education is one of the best ways to understand
the grief response and aide people in recovering from loss. The Journey
of Hearts’ objective is to normalize grief, by educating the public and
professionals and raising awareness that grief is a ‘normal’ response to
loss. With Grief AIDE we hope to improve the health of those grieving by
providing resources, support, and education so that the public and healthcare
professionals are more aware of the normal grief response. Greater awareness
of the grief response will increase the chances that the correct diagnosis
is made and that people will get the support they might need to help in
assimilating the loss.
Rendering Grief AIDE to those who are grieving
increases
Awareness by the
public, patients and physicians, so that patients will be more comfortable
bringing up the topic with their physicians and physicians will consider
loss and grief in the differential when seeing patients.
Identify the signs and symptoms
of the grief response, determine what is normal grief, what is depression
and what is a potentially serious medical condition and decide what can
be treated and what should be referred.
Diagnose the grief response
in our patients and help the grieving get the support they need to integrate
the loss.
Educate patients, the public
and colleagues in healthcare field to help normalize the grief response.
It is important that people understand that grief
is not like a cold or an illness that one “gets over,” rather grief is
something that gets better over time. According to Kenneth J. Doka:
We do not get over
grief. We learn to live a diffferent life.
But over time, we eventually
learn to live with the loss.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001 helped to
sensitize people around the world to the experience of loss and the grief
response creating greater awareness of these common experiences that are
rarely discussed. Thanks to the media taking on a new role as educator,
many more people now know about loss, the grief response, what is a ‘normal’
response and when to seek further help. This tragedy educated the public
and professionals so that in the future when other disasters or tragedies
occur, we all can understand more about loss and the grief response and
may be able to improve future coping. Ultimately education helps in “normalizing”
the grief response and enhances the recovering and healing processes. We
can be hopeful that after living through this national tragedy, in addition
to making us stronger and more sensitive, it will also make us more understanding
of the suffering of others and we will no longer turn our backs on those
who are grieving—personally or professionally.
Journey of Hearts is
a life saver on the Internet, providing a way to keep afloat on troubled
waters,
until help arrives, or
you paddle to shore.
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