Workshop Overview: Effective Brief Contact in a Single Session

Many community support and health care professionals may only have brief contact, or sometimes just a single session, with individuals experiencing grief or bereavement. Research tells us that a large percentage of bereaved individuals will be able to live with their grief with minimal support from professionals. However, it is acknowledged that complications and difficulties may occur over time if the bereaved individual has not had timely access to sound, basic information about the nature of grief, and how to identify when to be concerned for the wellbeing of themselves and others. Effective bereavement support can be offered or initiated via brief contact or a single session, without compromising the quality of the support given. This workshop is aimed at community support staff and health care workers who have contact with bereaved and grieving individuals, even though their primary role may not be in the field of grief and bereavement. The workshop will offer a simple framework and strategies that can be used to ensure effective bereavement support when only having brief contact with bereaved or grieving individuals.

Learning Outcomes: at the conclusion of this workshops, participants will be able to:

• Explore the grief experience for individuals using contemporary grief and bereavement theories/models.
• Understand basic grief education to individuals by identifying common grief reactions, possible behaviours and when to be concerned.
• Identify strategies and resources that can assist people who are grieving.
• Understand when to refer to specialist grief and bereavement services for ongoing support.
• Be familiar with skills and strategies to provide brief support to bereaved clients.
• Practise delivering these in a focused manner through experiential learning

Presenter: To be confirmed