bereavement services. . .. ....helping someone who is grieving

Helping Someone Who is Grieving

rief is a door we must all go through.  It is painful to walk through it, but we must go through it in order to go on with life.  We sometimes try to pretend the door is not there, or we prefer to leave it closed.  But only through facing it, opening it and walking through our grief do we move ahead into a new life.

The best way to help someone who is grieving is to:

- Learn about how grief affects all of us.
- Encourage them to express feelings openly.
- Be a good listener.
- Offer a hug.
- Don’t try to “fix” them.
- Meet them where they are, not where you think they should be.
- Let them tell and retell their story.
- Just be there and continue to be there as long as you are needed.
- Contact them on important days like birthdays, holidays and anniversaries when they are apt to acutely miss the one who died.

A death can be expected, as with our hospice patients, or it can happen suddenly. HQA’s Bereavement services are available to any resident of Queen Anne’s County regardless of the cause of death and regardless of whether or not their  loved one was a HQA patient.