A student’s experience with childhood bereavement can have a profound impact on their educational success. It can also challenge the stability of their family and may jeopardize their ability to remain in school and graduate.
Evaluation of the Good Grief Festival suggests it helped improve participants’ confidence in supporting bereaved people and improved attitudes compared with pre-festival data. However, the results suggest that further work is needed.
Financial Assistance
The death of a loved one is a traumatic event that can have lasting effects. Financial assistance can help alleviate the burden of tuition fees, textbooks, and other academic expenses to allow students to focus on their studies without the stress of financial instability. It can also enable them to explore other sources of support and healing, such as therapy and other grief support programs.
Many families face financial difficulties after a bereavement, especially if the loss occurred suddenly or unexpectedly. Students may need to continue working to support themselves or their families, and this can take time away from their studies. Grief Incorporated Scholarships are designed to help students in mourning receive the care they need without having to compromise their career or educational opportunities.
When a student’s parent or main source of income passes away, the family often faces overwhelming stress and difficulty in supporting their ongoing education. The sudden death of a spouse or parent can also lead to the student dropping out of school, which can have devastating long-term consequences for their future. The SAGE Scholars Educational Foundation has created the first-ever accidental death benefit for college students, designed to prevent these financial difficulties.
A major component of grief is overcoming the nagging physical pain that can accompany it. Many grieving people turn to medication to mask these symptoms, but this can actually delay or inhibit the natural process of working through grief. This can result in more long-term problems such as anxiety and depression.
For parents who have lost a child, the pain can be unbearable. The loss of a child shatters their core beliefs and assumptions about the world, as well as their hopes and dreams for the future. Grieving parents can experience a range of intense emotions, from denial and anger to deep sadness and emptiness.
In addition to offering financial support, the National Alliance for Children’s Grief provides resources for students and their teachers. These include a resource toolkit on funerals and memorials, educational webinars and workshops, and presentations at the COAA Convention. This organization aims to raise awareness of the needs of grieving children and foster a culture of empathy in schools and communities.
Support Groups
The loss of a loved one can be very distressing for young people, especially children and teens. Often, they lack the maturity and guidance needed to process their grief, which can lead to feelings of hopelessness and depression. To help them cope with the death of a loved one, many schools offer grief-sensitive programs, such as support groups and educational workshops. These programs can also provide financial assistance to families in need.
A variety of grieving support services exist for students, including online forums and peer-to-peer support groups. These support services can help students navigate the complex process of mourning, and provide them with a space to share their experiences without judgment. These support services can also help them build a network of friends and peers who can relate to their experiences.
Grieving students may need additional resources to manage their grief, such as access to professional counseling or community-based support groups. In addition, they may need financial assistance to cover essential living expenses, such as housing and food. Fortunately, a number of nonprofit organizations offer grief-sensitive scholarships for students. These scholarships can make a huge difference in the lives of grieving students.
For example, Atlantic Home Care and Hospice sponsor Camp Clover, a free bereavement day camp for children and teens who have experienced the death of someone close to them. The organization also provides a 24-hour crisis and listening hotline, Caring Contact. The organization also offers the Bereavement Scholarship Program, which awards college scholarships to students who have participated in its grief support programs.
In the United States, there are more than 2,000 schools that have adopted the Grief-Sensitive Schools Initiative. This initiative aims to address the unique needs of grieving students and promote resilience. Educators can implement the initiative by providing resources and training for students and parents, creating supportive environments, and by offering flexible deadlines and academic accommodations.
The Center for Loss and Life Transition is dedicated to “companioning people through significant transitions, losses and deaths.” It supports mourners by providing books, DVDs, caring cards, and a magazine. In addition, the center offers a six-week daytime educational and support group for adults who have lost a spouse or life partner. The program teaches participants how to cope with the loss and explores their grief experience and journey.
Educational Workshops
The death of a loved one can have profound implications for children, teenagers and adults alike. This is why educational institutions, communities and individuals need to be prepared to support mourning students. This means offering educational workshops that are designed to educate those who work with grieving people about the impact of traumatic loss and grief.
These workshops can provide an excellent opportunity for health care professionals to learn about best practices and how to respond to families when a bereavement occurs. This can help them to better understand the unique challenges that grieving children and teens face, as well as how to recognize and respond to their needs.
There are also educational workshops that focus on specific types of loss, such as organ and tissue donation. These are often provided by organizations that represent the donor community and are aimed at educating healthcare providers about how to best support patients and their families when a loved one passes away through donation.
For example, there is a workshop offered by the Compassionate Friends that is open to all families of donors. This is a nationwide organization that provides support and education to those who are grieving the loss of a child through organ and tissue donation. This is an important educational workshop for health care professionals to attend as it can help them to become more sensitive and compassionate in their interactions with families who are grieving the loss of a loved one through transplantation.
Another educational workshop that is often offered by the Grief Incorporated Scholarship is a webinar on trauma and grief. This webinar is designed to teach participants how to better understand the impact of traumatic death and loss on a person’s psychological, emotional and physical health. This is an important webinar for anyone who works with grieving people to attend as it can provide valuable insight into how to effectively support them.
The prevalence of bereavement among traditional-aged college students should compel universities to offer an array of educational interventions that are tailored to their unique needs. Such educational interventions could include the creation of support groups, the provision of grief counseling services and educational workshops. By providing these resources, colleges can help their students to cope with the loss of a loved one while completing their academic pursuits and fostering a culture of compassion and care in their communities.
Counseling
Grief is a complex and universal response to loss. During this time, it can be helpful to seek professional guidance from a counselor or support specialist who can guide and listen to your experiences and feelings. Grief counseling and support groups are also great ways to connect with others who have similar experiences and can provide insight and resources to help you cope.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about collective experiences of grief that included deaths of loved ones, job losses and financial hardships. For this reason, many grieving individuals have sought counseling services and a range of other social support activities to help them navigate their challenges. These programs are helping to alleviate the burden of this crisis and to increase the availability of these crucial services.
In addition to supporting students in mourning, many scholarship programs invest in students’ futures by providing scholarships and empowering them to pursue their educational goals. They recognize that a quality education is the key to achieving a fulfilling life and by promoting academic success, they foster a culture of compassion and understanding and remind students that they are not alone.
As a surviving family member of a military servicemember who was killed in action, Emily McClimans had no idea the variety of benefits available to her as a TAPS survivor. Attending a TAPS Good Grief Camp and National Military Survivor Seminar helped her find resources that she could use to help cover the costs of attending Texas Christian University.
For instance, a community-wide initiative known as the Good Grief Festival supported discussions and learning about death, dying and grief while also increasing access to social support and bereavement care. Pre/post data analyzing festival attendance revealed that people who attended the event reported higher levels of confidence and improved attitudes regarding grief and bereavement, compared to those in the control group.
The scholarship program founded by Sarah Olenik to honor her late husband, David, supports students who are studying social work or counseling with a focus in grief and loss issues. Sarah’s intention for this scholarship is to help students receive the same specialized treatment she received, which was vital to her own healing and recovery from her own experience with loss.