Everyone experiences the loss when someone meaningful dies, and everyone needs to grieve that loss—the wide receiver on the football team, the shy student in the back of the classroom, the secretary in the guidance office, the maintenance staff, the teacher known as the toughest grader in the school, the principal. Ashewood Grief and Counseling Services of Caldwell Hospice and Palliative Care has trained counselors and bereavement specialists who can help students grieve their losses and grow into the next phase of their lives. They can teach individuals how to support others when they are experiencing grief and loss.

People suffer the hardest when they deny themselves—or are denied—the right to feel sad, to ask questions, to ache almost unbearably when a loss occurs. "It is as important to learn to grieve as it is to learn math, language or science. Grief is a ... skill to be learned and lived. Grief is not an illness to be treated."

The "Grief in Schools" program provides

	Staff in-services on grief-related topics and strategies
	Information to help students and teachers help others grieve
	Awareness information for parents
	Support for anyone in the school who needs it, at the time of crisis and through follow-ups in months to come
	Individual counseling
	Support groups, with meetings scheduled at suitable intervals, following the loss
	Practical activities to help students and faculty recognize grief signs and respond appropriately
	Memorial service
Ashewood’s “Growing through Grief” program is targeted to third-graders but can be altered to fit second-, fourth-, and fifth-graders, if requested. Ashewood’s bereavement support specialist meets with the children for 30 to 45 minutes; they discuss changes, both happy and sad, and talk about good ways to cope with changes (losing a pet, moving to a new school, losing a loved one, etc.) and how to help friends who are experiencing the sadness of loss.  For more information about Grief in Schools, contact the Bereavement Support Specialist at (828) 754-0101 or bereavementspecialist@caldwellhospice.org