Creating Supportive Environments

Hello everyone! Sorry in advance - you'll come across this more than once as we want to make sure everyone will see it:

I'm Cara, the Compassionate Communities Engagement Coordinator. The Exchange is meant to be informative, current, engaging, and most of all, useful to you! 

Sometimes HOW you say something can be just as important as WHAT you're saying. For this platform to be beneficial to you, make your posts accessible and appealing to other community members. 

Here are the top 4 tips to increase engagement of your post (see image).

The benefits of a well-done post include more likes, discussion, feedback, and relationships with other community members-the Exchange is a great space to connect with others. Make the most of your time here by using these tips.

I'm excited to see where higher engagement can take your posts. See you around the Exchange!

If you have feedback, ideas, or questions, my inbox is always open. You can message me here or email me at cdavidson@pallium.ca. 

Hello all,
We are the Children and Youth Grief Network (CYGN). Our mission is to advocate for educational opportunities and support services that will benefit children and youth who are grieving the dying or the death of someone they care about.

We have developed and published several resources, all of which are free and can be accessed from our website, https://www.childrenandyouthgriefnetwork.com/#home

Our most recent initiatives include:
- "Crossroads of Grief Project: The intersection of working with marginalized grieving youth. Most recently we published an updated Literature Review and Overview which can be accessed through our website. Access here : https://www.childrenandyouthgriefnetwork.com/#search

- The Grief and Death Education Toolkit : Is part of a initiative to help teachers feel more comfortable addressing concepts of death and grief within the school setting. The package includes an outline of death education, lesson plans, tip sheets and resource lists. The lesson plans compliment Ontario curriculum standards and outline ways to incorporate lessons about death and grief into classroom discussions. Request free PDF or hard copy through our website. FRENCH translation now available PDF here: https://www.childrenandyouthgriefnetwork.com/#handbook

- Handbook to Support Children: A HANDBOOK FOR VOLUNTEERS: SUPPORTING CHILDREN GRIEVING THE DYING AND DEATH OF A LOVED ONE (available in English and French)
- Handbook to Support Youth: A HANDBOOK FOR SUPPORTERS: EXTENDING COMPASSION & CARE TO GRIEVING YOUTH (available in English)

These handbooks are intended for volunteers and professionals who have received formalized training in the field of children and youth grief support.
As a supporter, you play a very important role in a child’s life – the work you do will not only serve them in their grief, but will help them to cope with other challenges that they might face in their lives. - Access here: https://www.childrenandyouthgriefnetwork.com/#handbook

- E-learning Course : Weathering the Storm: Parenting Grieving Children
This interactive e-learning course was created in partnership with the CYGN and the Family Education Centre and was developed using the content of the CYGN Handbooks. The grief e-course has been created to support the caregivers of grieving children and youth and help them navigate the challenges of providing care after someone has died.
Available through the Family Education Centre website: https://familyedcentre.org/courses/weathering-the-storm-parenting-griev…

-Tip sheets and Audio Podcasts
FREE tip sheets and podcasts (available in seven languages) were created in Partnership with the Children and Youth Grief Network and the Family Education Centre
Downloadable Tip Sheets and Podcasts for Grieving Caregivers include:
1.Communicating with Your Child or Youth about Grief
2. Tips for Recognizing a Grieving Child or Youth
3. The Importance of Self-Care In Helping Youth Child or Youth Grieve
4. Parenting When Your Child or Youth is Grieving
Available through Family Education Centre website: https://familyedcentre.org/parent-resource-library/

Please feel free to follow us!!!
Facebook : Children and Youth Grief Network
Twitter: C_grief
Instagram: Children Youth Grief Network

When looking at post-secondary environments, are there examples of how universities are partnering with Compassionate Community initiatives?

End of Life Care on the Ground: Carpenter Hospice's Community Volunteer Initiative

This poster talks about one of the Compassionate Community project in Canada and how they are working to "build a bridge" in their community. This project has the faith community as a key partner and volunteers who have taken the N-Care training. This work is a great example of creating supportive networks within the community with hospice as the linking piece.

School Children and their understanding of "major change or losses in life"

This poster show the outcome of a collaborative project between an French school in Calgary and an international school. This research interviewed children, parents, and teachers to understand their perspectives on this topic. We have learned from the creation of sex education that teachers and parents have a key role in supporting children when they are learning about life skills.

Educating Future Health Professionals: LEAP Health Science Curriculum (2017)

This poster shows the results of a pilot project focused on undergrad students who had an interested in the health field. This curriculum supports the idea that everyone within the health care field needs to have a basic understand of palliative care and Compassionate Communities. 2 pilots have been completed with participation representing a variety of health related undergrads.

Compassionate Schools Poster (2017)
Here is a great poster talking about Compassionate Schools. There are ideas on how to become more compassionate and curriculum that supports the conversations around death and grieving with elementary students.

It is wonderful to see patient-driven measures of quality of life being recognized as important and effective. This is at the heart of good policy design...designing policies to deliver results that people want.

https://www.ices.on.ca/Publications/Journal-Articles/2019/March/Days-at…

Title: Which patients die in their preferred place? A secondary analysis of questionnaire data from bereaved relatives (2018)

This article highlights factors that impact individuals' ability to die in their preferred place. Overall, having continuity of care between healthcare professionals and informal caregivers, staying in contact with a doctor, and having awareness of end of life wishes was found to increase the chances of dying in a preferred place. 

This article is not open access but can be accessed through:
DOI: 10.1177/0269216317710383

Universities and colleges can be a great resource for accessing supportive articles that aren't open access through in-kind support, and this can be a partnership opportunity for your Compassionate Community initiative. 

Title: Distance education methods are useful for delivering education to palliative caregivers: A single-arm trial of an education package [PalliativE Caregivers Education Package] (2017)

Reviewing this document would be helpful if you are looking to create educational supports for caregivers as a part of your Compassionate Community initiative. Caregivers play an important role looking after dying individuals in a community and often don't have prior knowledge or experience to take on this role. Supportive education programs and resources that take their challenges into account (i.e. lack of time and ability to attend face-to-face programs) as shown by the example in this article, can be great tools to help increase caregivers' knowledge and understanding of caregiving.

This article is not open access but can be accessed through:
DOI: 10.1177/0269216317712849

Universities and colleges can be a great resource for accessing supportive articles that aren't open access through in-kind support, and this can be a partnership opportunity for your Compassionate Community initiative.