Several of my residents have said they would be interested in a grief support group. Have any of you set something like this up? What are the pros and cons???
Hi Sally - we have what we call 'Memory Bowl' sessions. We hold these about every 3 months for each of our 4 communities (wings). It's an opportunity for Residents and staff to share their memories of the Residents who have passed away. We have a large glass bowl that has beautiful butterflies (fabric) in it and we have a smaller bowl of butterflies. After the group have shared their memories about the particular Resident, a person (usually either a Resident or staff member who was close to the person or who had the most memories to share) chooses a butterfly from the smaller bowl and places it in the larger bowl in memory of the Resident.
The large bowl of butterflies sits on a table under a beautiful patchwork quilt we have on a wall in our foyer. We pin the butterflies on the quilt with the Residents first name. Those butterflies stay on the quilt for the remainder of the year. We find these sessions are a great comfort and support to the Residents and the staff. Sometimes, family members will attend as well. Posted by Sharon
Golden Carers is AMAZING! We use it every day in one capacity or another. It has assisted to make our jobs easier as well as stepping up our activities! Thank you for all the materials and resources, keep up the GREAT work!
Susan Winiecki Director of Activities United States
Thank you for any suggestions.
Here are some examples of support groups for your residents and families
https://www.goldencarers.com/12-examples-of-support-groups-for-your-community/7838/
What I have done for a grief is every few months we honored those who have passed on
We had a memorial service
Here are some other ideas
https://www.goldencarers.com/20-ways-to-honor-loss-in-your-community/5611/
The large bowl of butterflies sits on a table under a beautiful patchwork quilt we have on a wall in our foyer. We pin the butterflies on the quilt with the Residents first name. Those butterflies stay on the quilt for the remainder of the year. We find these sessions are a great comfort and support to the Residents and the staff. Sometimes, family members will attend as well. Posted by Sharon
What a wonderful thing to do. Thank you for sharing this.