Summer 'grief camps' aim to help children cope with loss

 A hospice in Truro, N.S., is hosting two free "grief camps" this summer for children who have experienced the loss of a loved one.

The camps are for children between the ages of six and 12.

Stacey Harrison, the executive director of the Colchester East Hants Hospice Society, told CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia the aim is to help children who have experienced loss share their experiences and connect with others.

Harrison said the camps will include education and activities to help children develop their coping skills.

Harrison's conversation with Information Morning host Portia Clark has been edited for clarity and length.

This isn't the first time you've been involved with grief camps?

To give credit where credit is due, Bailey's Hope Society did very similar camps in 2003 up until 2010, and when they stopped operation our organization was gifted the framework of what those camps look like as well as any leftover supplies in terms of craft.

We've just kept those on hold. Grief and bereavement has always been part of what we do, but in 2019-2020 we did a strategic focus and it became what we did. This was the perfect opportunity to reintroduce the camps.

Why this particular age group kids between the ages of six and 12?

It was one of the age demographics that we didn't feel was supported the same as some of the others.

We have done peer-led grief groups and supported other organizations within the schools.

But this [age group] in particular was one that we really felt needed a little bit more support.

That's why we made the decision to offer these two camps for that age group this summer.

Where are the camps? Tell us a bit more about them.

We have two this summer.

One is going to be based out of our office in Truro in July and one we're partnering with the Family Resource Centre in Elmsdale.

They're going to be four days, combining a little bit of education component, physical activity and some of those coping skills and activities that are going to allow the kids to really be able to be creative then and bring memories into those activities of the person that they lost in their lives.

We're really excited about reintroducing.

What are some of those ways of talking about or introducing the topic of grief without it being so overt? 

They're certainly big emotions.

I'm not a social worker and do not have a clinical background, but we have two amazing ladies that are on our team that do. They're going to take the lead.

One of the things that we're going to do is to get a really good understanding of who the participants are.

There is going to be an interview with the child and the family. We're really going to have a good understanding as to who died in their life — what big emotions are they dealing with and what are some of those things that we feel we need to know to make it the best experience for them— that's a key piece of it.

And then it's just making it a normal conversation with them.

There's going to be the shared experiences with the others in the group and just really engaging in the conversation and meeting them where they're at.

Based on what happened with Bailey's Hope Society in these camps in the past, how does this tend to develop over the course in terms of relating to one another, sharing experiences and really getting some healing into the curriculum?

They did an amazing job at recording data.

There was a pre- and post-assessment that was done and we've been fortunate we've been gifted those statistics.

When you look at it, the difference between where [participants] felt at the beginning emotionally and where they felt at the end, it was fairly dramatic.

We're using that model and  incorporating that into the camps as we reintroduce and a lot of it is just learning.

Our team hasn't done these before.

We're really looking forward to incorporating those learnings of what we've done through our programs and services, what Bailey's Hope has done, and then learning from the kids themselves and where they're at now.

What about not dealing with grief? Some kids may come there and really not want to be too open about it.

That's one of the things that we'll identify in the assessment. We certainly want them to feel comfortable and want to be here.

We are limited to the number of participants that we can accommodate.

Part of why we want to do those assessments in the beginning as well is we know grief groups aren't going to be for everybody.

But what we can learn from that is what would work for some individuals that may not be as open to participating in a group, and that's going to be part of how we develop our programs and services moving forward as well.

Is there still time for people to apply?

Our office is taking all the referrals that come in and the phone calls and answering any questions.

Then it will go to our social work team and they'll do that next step in making sure that they are a fit and being able to answer any additional questions.

By all means reach out, and even though we do have limited capacity we are going to be taking all that information and moving forward with ways we can support in other ways.

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