Help Centers And Organizations |
|
|
|
|
||
|
To help you with your loss, here is a list of organizations designed just for that. It’s okay to reach out for help; someday someone may be reaching out for your help.
Candlelighters and the Candlelighter Foundation Candlelighters is an international organization of people who have lost children to cancer. Some groups have youth auxiliaries for teenage cancer patients and for teenage siblings of cancer victims. The groups provide counseling for the family. Candlelighters has more that 165 chapters. For more information write or call;
The Candlelighters Foundation
Centers for Attitudinal Research This organization was developed by a child psychiatrist for children with life-threatening illnesses. It directs its attention to children from six to sixteen and offers a sharing, loving, supportive program with the use of art and music. Siblings of children who have died need to share their fears. In the siblings) group, common fears about anger and guilt feelings about sick or dying brothers and sisters are discussed in a supportive atmosphere. For more information write or call:
The Center for Attitudinal Healing
Compassionate Friends, Inc. This voluntary self-help organization offers understanding and friendship to bereaved parents and surviving siblings. Its main goal is to assist families in the positive resolution of their grief after the death of a child and to promote their physical and emotional health. The group charges no dues and has no religious affiliation. Founded in England, it now has 525 chapters in the United States as well as chapters in England, Australia, South Africa, The Netherlands, Canada, Israel, and Switzerland. It also publishes pamphlets as guides in understanding for teachers, doctors, and nurses. For more information, write or call:
Compassionate Friends, Inc.
Living Is for Today (LIFT) An open-ended self-help support goup, LIFT is sponsored by Bereavement Services & Community Education, a division of Humphrey Funeral Home. It hosts weekly meetings open to the community and offers grieving siblings support, encouragement, and a common language. Each group is facilitated by a professionally trained person. There are no attendance or financial requirements. For more information write or call:
Diana McKendree, Director
MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) This group was founded by Candy Lightner after her thirteen-year-old daughter was killed by a repeat-offender drunk driver. It includes not only fathers, sons, daughters, and siblings but also concerned citizens. The national aims are to enforce legislation to take drunk drivers off the road; to provide victim support, and to further public awareness. For more information, write or call:
Norma Phillips, President
Parents of Murdered Children, Inc.
This self-help group believes that
a person who has recovered from a loss can be more helpful than a
professional using only theoretical knowledge. Often siblings attend
meetings, and some chapters have sibling groups. Families of a
homicide death have to bear an additional burden to grief-that of
intrusion into their intense grief. The news media focus on the
victim and the family. Police, lawyers, and others may require
information, testimony. If a murder suspect is
Parents of Murdered Children, Inc.
Rothman-Cole Center for Sibling Loss The center provides individual and family counseling, focusing solely on sibling bereavement. For more information write or call;
Rothman-Cole Center for Sibling
Loss
Survivors of Suicide
TIGERS (Teens in Grief: educate, rebuild, support) This is a grief support group for teenage surviving siblings. Write to:
Fr. Mike DiMaio, Grief Facilitator
|
||