JACKSON WILL BE ONE SITE FOR GRIEF TELECONFERENCE

On April 26, Visiting Nurse Association, University Outreach & Extension, Three Rivers Community College and Kennett Vo-Tech School will join more than 2,400 Organizations across the United States and Canada as local co-hosts for the Hospice Foundation Of America's seventh annual National Bereavement Teleconference.

"Living With Grief; Children, Adolescents, and Loss," a live via-satellite video teleconference, will focus on ways to help children and adolescents cope with loss. The program will offer insight and practical suggestions for those assisting young people with issues that include death, serious illness, divorce, and other traumatic incidents. The program will be moderated by Cokie Roberts of ABC News and will feature a distinguished panel of experts.

All are invited to attend the free program at various sites throughout the Southeast Missouri, including Jackson. Register by calling Tammy Jones at VNA to reserve a seat at the site in Jackson. She can be reached at (573) 748-2519 or 1-800-246-2519. There are a limited number of program books available for $7.00 each ($16.95 retail). They may also be reserved by phone. CEU's are available through the Hospice Foundation of America for $20, for those who are interested.

The teleconference is produced by Hospice Foundation of America, a non-profit organization that assists those who cope either personally or professionally with terminal illness and the process of death, grief and bereavement. The teleconference is sponsored by Service Corporation International, with additional support from Project on Death in America. Last year's teleconference was seen by more than 150,000 people in over 2,400 communities.

"While we often discuss how we grieve as adults, rarely do we consider the losses that children and adolescents must face," said Jack D. Gordon, president of the Hospice Foundation of America, "Whether they are grieving the death of a parent or grandparent, or they must face the loss involved in relocation or divorce, children and adolescents often do not know how to cope. This teleconference will present interventive techniques that caring adults can use to empower children and adolescents with effective coping skills."

"Young people today are facing the added burden of violence at school as well as the growing number turning to suicide to solve what seems to them to be insurmountable problems," said Scott Miskelly, VNA Hospice Director. "There is more violence and grief in their lives today than ever before. We must be prepared to help them cope with these losses, not let them become hopelessly traumatized by them."

Roberts will moderate the two-and-one-half-hour panel discussion. The panel will include Nancy Boyd Webb, DSW, BCD, RPT-S, a social worker and expert on play therapy for bereaved children; Charles Corr, PhD, professor and author who has written extensively on children, adolescents, and grief; Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, Lutheran minister and professor of gerontology at the College of New Rochelle; Margarita Suarez, RN, PNP, MA, a pediatric nurse, former school teacher and Executive Director of AVANTA in Washington state. Dottie Ward-Wimmer, a pediatric nurse and children's pediatric nurse and children's bereavement counselor with the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing in Washington, DC, and Sheila Holt, a counselor with the DC Public School System, will join the panel for a discussion on intervention.