Specialty Workshops
Wednesday, April 15

Full-Day Workshops
8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

The Nuts and Bolts of Developing and Enhancing a Medical Center-Based Grief Support Center
(Introductory)
Wolfe, Ben Med¹, Dixon, Gina MA²
¹ Program Manager/Grief Counselor, Association for Death Education and Counseling, St. Mary's Grief Support Center, Duluth, MN  United States
² Grief Counselor/Volunteer Coordinator, Association for Death Education and Counseling, St. Mary’s Grief Support Center, Duluth, MN  United States

St. Mary's Medical Center’s Grief Support Center (GSC) in Duluth, MN began January 3, 1985, and is an umbrella for various support programs and services. The GSC was the first in Minnesota to develop such a medical center-based grief support program and possibly the first grief support center of its type in the United States. Over the past twenty-four years the GSC has provided a comprehensive program of counseling, support, advocacy, education, and research for individuals who are dealing with, or affected by, an impending death, traumatic injury, or who are bereaved (as a result of ANY type of death). The GSC programs and services are not only for adults, parents, children and families, but also health and educational institutions, community members and specialized groups. The GSC medical center-based community grief and bereavement model demonstrates year after year an integrated, collaborative community and hospital-wide approach to grief support works.

This full-day interactive session will utilize handouts, discussion, and AV, and will assist hospitals who are considering developing a medical-center based bereavement program, and will provide new ideas for those currently offering bereavement services. Topics will include: Steps necessary to develop a program; Goals and Objectives; Funding; Income; Staff/personnel; Advertising; Programs/services offered (outpatient counseling and support groups for youth/adults); Volunteer Program; Inpatient/family counseling; Staff/ Physicians counseling; Crisis intervention; Consultation and training programs; Benefits to the Medical Center; and Evaluation of program.

Resources:
Bodenbach, M. ( 2005). Developing a Bereavement Services Component for an Urban Teaching Hospital’s New Palliative Care Program: A Four-Target Survey Approach. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 8(4), 713-715.

Wolfe, B. (2001). A Hospital-Based Grief Support Center: The Nuts and Bolts of Development. In D. Weeks & C. Johnson (eds.) When All the Friends Have Gone: A Guide for Aftercare Providers (pp 155-172). New York: Baywood Publishing.

Oliver, R., Sturtevant, J, Scheetz, J, & Fallat, M. (2001). Beneficial Effects of a Hospital Bereavement Intervention Program after Traumatic Childhood Death. Journal of Trauma, 50(3), 440-448.

deCinque, N., Monterosso, L., Dadd, G., Sidhu, R., & Lucas, R.. (2004). Bereavement support for families following the death of a child from cancer: Practice characteristics of Australian and New Zealand pediatric oncology units. Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health, 40(3), 131-135.

Faculty:
Ben Wolfe, M.Ed., Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, is the founder and Program Manager of the 24 year old St. Mary’s Grief Support Center (GSC). He has been Certified as a Fellow in Thanatology by the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), and provides life-threatening illness and bereavement counseling for ages ranging from pre-school to senior citizens through individual and family counseling, and support groups. Ben has given over 1,800 presentations at the local, regional, state, national and international levels, and has taught a graduate course on death and dying for the University of Minnesota, Duluth for over 25 years and also a course on life-threatening illness for the last twenty-one years at the University of Minnesota, Duluth School of Medicine. He is a clinical member of the regional Critical Incident Stress Debriefing team and consults with hospitals, hospices, schools, agencies, organizations and industry on topics related to grief and loss. Ben is a past president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, and currently serves as the Co-Chair of ADEC’s Hospital Based Bereavement Programs Special Interest Group (SIG). For the past fourteen years he has served as Chair of the 300 member Minnesota Coalition for Death Education and Support. He was also appointed by the National Kidney Foundation from 2001-2005 to the eleven member National Donor Family Council Executive Committee which consists of 11,000 members whose loved ones died and organs or tissue were donated after their death, and also professionals. In addition to chapters in books, he has authored numerous articles related to grief and loss and is the editor or the Grief Support Center’s 24 year old newsletter, Grief Notes. Ben has received a number of awards, including the first-ever Paul Wellstone Legacy Award presented by the Minnesota School Counselors Association in May, 2004, for his work with schools and communities in crisis, and in May, 2005, was selected as one of the five “Employees of the Year” by St. Mary’s Medical Center.

Gina Dixon, M.A., Licensed Psychologist has served as a grief counselor and volunteer coordinator with St. Mary’s Grief Support Center (GSC) for the past 15 years. Gina provides individual and family counseling on an inpatient and outpatient basis to children, adolescents, and adults impacted by life-threatening illness, trauma, and bereavement. She also facilitates a number of grief support groups for children and adults. Gina has authored numerous articles related to grief and loss, and serves as editor for The Link newsletter which has a circulation of more than 5,000 health care professionals, clergy, funeral directors, volunteers, and bereaved individuals. As the GSC Volunteer Coordinator, Gina is responsible for recruiting, training, and supervising volunteers in 6 service areas including a Person-to-Person Bereavement Program, a Bereavement Follow-up Program, and a Volunteer Speaker’s Bureau. She presents on topics related to grief and loss, as well as volunteer management, on the local, regional and national level, including a number of ADEC conferences. Gina is currently an active member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), the Minnesota Coalition for Death Education and Support (MCDES), and Women in Thanatology (WIT). She served on ADEC’s board of directors from 2005- 2008, and co-chaired ADEC’s Hospital –based Bereavement Special Interest Group (SIG) from 1996-2004.

Using Drawings in Working with Children and Adults
(Intermediate)
DeSpelder, Lynne Ann MA, FT¹, Barrett, Ronald Keith PhD, FT²
¹ Professor, Association for Death Education and Counseling, Capitola, CA United States
² Professor of Psychology, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA United States

Would you like to develop and expand your resources for working with individuals and groups? Laying aside projective analyses, this workshop guides participants in exploring the use of drawings to enhance communication with children and adults in educational or therapeutic situations. Replacing analysis with curiosity, you will learn how to use drawings to facilitate your understanding of you own and another’s thoughts, feelings, and concepts in death-related situations. Investigate the impact of important factors in death experiences including culture through the use of drawings. Participants will prepare at least one drawing and practice using it to communicate, if they choose, with others in the workshop. This experiential learning will be enhanced by viewing drawings obtained in various circumstances by the presenters.

Resources:
Bolton, G. (2007). Dying, Bereavement and the Healing Arts. London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Inc.

DeSpelder, L. A., & Strickland, A.L. (2008). The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying, 8th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hieb. M. (2005). Inner Journeying Through Art-Journaling: Learning to See and Record your Life as a Work of Art. London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Inc.

Hinz, L. ( 2008). "Walking the Line Between Passion and Caution in Art Therapy: Using the Expressive Therapies Continuum to Avoid Therapist Errors." Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, Milwaukee, WI.

Massimo, L. & Zarri, D. (2006). In Tribute to Luigi Castagnetta--Drawings. A Narrative Approach for Children with Cancer. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1089 (1), xvi-xxii.

Seftel, L. (2006). Grief Unseen: Healing Pregnancy Loss Through the Arts. London, Jessica Kingley Publishers, Inc., 95-100.

Faculty:
Lynne Ann DeSpelder, M.A. FT, counselor and a professor of psychology co-authored The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying, 8th ed. (2008.) An ADEC member, she conducts workshops about thanatology both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Ronald Barrett, FT, is internationally recognized as a specialist in the study of cultural differences in thanatology. He and Lynne initiated a cross-national study of children’s conceptions of death through drawings and have taught together in many settings including ADEC’s Foundations Course for CT units from 2003-2005.

Beyond Gender: Understanding the Ways Men and Women Grieve
(Intermediate)
Doka, Kenneth PhD¹, Martin, Terry PhD²
¹ Professor, The College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY  United States
² Associate Professor, Hood College, G-P-T Group., Frederick, MD  United States

Many individuals believe that if an individual does not show or share sadness or express other emotions, that individual is not in touch with or is suppressing grief. In fact, grief reactions are highly individual and varied. Many men, and women, may express their grief in more instrumental ways, showing grief in more cognitive or active manifestations. This session explores the different patterns or styles of grief, emphasizing that each of these pattern has their own distinct advantages and disadvantages.
Counselors would benefit from this session in two major ways. First it challenges counselors to move beyond affect to explore the many ways that individuals cope with loss. Second, the workshop offers specific interventive strategies that are effective with different patterns.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:
1. Describe institutional, intuitive, blended and dissonant patterns of grief;
2. Describe the theoretical and research basis for a continuum of grieving styles;
3. Discuss the ways that each pattern can facilitate or complicate the grieving process;
4. Identify and discuss pathways to grieving patterns including, gender, culture, cohort, and temperament;
5. Discuss the effect of development on grieving patterns;
6. Describe interventive techniques suitable for each pattern.

Resources:
Doka, K. J. & Martin, T. (2009) Mourning beyond gender: Understanding the ways men and women grieve. Philadelphia, PA: Brunner-Mazel.

Martin, T. & Doka, K.J. (1999). Men don’t cry, women do: Transcending gender stereotypes of grief. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor and Francis.

Martin, T. & Wang, W. (2006). A pilot study of the development of a test to measure instrumental and intuitive styles of grieving. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 53, 263-276.

Worden, J.W. (2008) Grief counseling and grief therapy: A handbook for the mental health practitioner. (4th Edition) . New York: Springer.

Faculty:
Dr. Kenneth J. Doka is a Professor of Gerontology at the Graduate School of The College of New Rochelle and Senior Consultant to the Hospice Foundation of America. A prolific author, Dr. Doka’s books include Living with Grief: Children and Adolescents, Living with Grief: Before and After Death, Death, Dying and Bereavement: Major Themes in Health and Social Welfare (a 4 Volume edited work), Pain Management at the End-of-Life: Bridging the Gap between Knowledge and Practice, Living with Grief: Ethical Dilemmas at the End of Life, Living with Grief: Alzheimer’s Disease, Living with Grief: Coping with Public Tragedy; Men Don’t Cry, Women Do: Transcending Gender Stereotypes of Grief; Living with Grief: Loss in Later Life, Disenfranchised Grief: Recognizing Hidden Sorrow: Living with Life Threatening Illness; Children Mourning, Mourning Children; Death and Spirituality; Living with Grief: After Sudden Loss; Living with Grief: When Illness is Prolonged; Living with Grief: Who We Are, How We Grieve; Living with Grief: At Work, School and Worship; Living with Grief: Children, Adolescents and Loss; Caregiving and Loss: Family Needs, Professional Responses; AIDS, Fear and Society; Aging and Developmental Disabilities; and Disenfranchised Grief: New Directions, Challenges, and Strategies for Practice. In addition to these books, he has published over 100 articles and book chapters. Dr. Doka is editor of both Omega: The Journal of Death and Dying and Journeys: A Newsletter for the Bereaved.

Dr. Doka was elected President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling in 1993. In 1995, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Work Group on Dying, Death and Bereavement and served as chair from 1997-1999. The Association for Death Education and Counseling presented him with an Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Death Education in 1998. In 2000 Scott and White presented him an award for Outstanding Contributions to Thanatology and Hospice. His Alma Mater Concordia College presented him with their first Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2006, Dr. Doka was grandfathered in as a Mental Health Counselor under NY State’s first licensure of counselors.
Dr. Doka has keynoted conferences throughout North America as well as Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. He participates in the annual Hospice Foundation of America Teleconference and has appeared on CNN and Nightline. In addition he has served as a consultant to medical, nursing, funeral service and hospice organizations as well as businesses and educational and social service agencies. Dr. Doka is an ordained Lutheran minister.

Dr. Martin is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Thanatology at Hood College. He is the co-author of Men don't cry, women do: Challenging gender stereotypes of grief and the forthcoming Mourning beyond Gender.

Catching Your Breath in Grief: A Workshop for Caregivers
(Intermediate)
Attig, Thomas PhD¹
¹ Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Bowling Green State University, Fairfield, CA  United States

This workshop presents whatever wisdom the presenter has acquired in thirty-five years of reflection about the meanings of life, death, and grieving. It unfolds around a universal human story that resonates with experiences of wonder about life; longing for self-understanding; connection, care, and love; loss and suffering; hope that reaches through brokenness and sorrow; and searching for meaning in encounters with mystery – themes that thread through the world’s great spiritual traditions.

The opening session tells the story of the coming and going of the breath of life: the grace that gives it, its animating power, the life support it provides, and the good reasons why traditions identify it with soul and spirit. And of how, as brokenness and sorrow (grief reaction) come over us, loss takes our breath away.

The remaining sessions tell of how, through active engagement with what has happened to us (grieving response), we catch our breath. Sorrow-friendly practices enable us to breathe into our suffering and learn from it, and we draw upon hope and the resilience of soul and spirit. We learn to carry sorrow. We relearn the worlds of our experience (our surroundings, our selves, and our place in the great scheme of things). And we learn to love in separation through memory and embracing legacies.

Workshop sessions are filled with discussion of how caregivers can support the breath of life in grievers as they experience brokenness, sorrow, and crisis; actively engage with what has happened; and learn to live in a world changed profoundly by loss.

Resources:
Attig, T. (2004) “Meanings of Death Seen through the Lens of Grieving,” Death Studies.

Attig, T. (2000). The Heart of Grief: Death and the Search for Lasting Love, Oxford University Press.

Attig, T. (1996) How We Grieve: Relearning the World. Oxford University Press.

Attig, T. (2004) “Disenfranchised Grief Revisited: Discounting Hope and Love,” Omega.

Faculty:
Thomas Attig, PhD and applied philosopher is a past president of ADEC and the author of How We Grieve: Relearning the World and The Heart of Grief: Death and the Search for Lasting Love. Catching Your Breath in Grief, the basis for this workshop, has yet to be published.

Morning Workshops
8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

The Veteran's Last Skirmish: Encountering Dying and Death
(Introductory)
Flanagan-Kaminsky, DonnaMarie MA, CT¹
¹ Grief Counselor, Department of Veterans Affairs, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, Brecksville, OH  United States

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) operates the nation’s largest integrated health care system providing care to nearly 6 million unique patients and over 54 million outpatient visits annually. Nationally, there are 23, 976, 991 veterans. Over 1800 veterans die every day. One-fourth of all Americans who die this year will be veterans. Veterans ages 85+ will triple from 2000 to 2010.
Only 4% of veterans die in VA facilities. The remaining 96% die in community settings. Therefore, it is important to educate the community about the unique needs of veterans at end-of-life.

There is a growing awareness that military experience, particularly serving in a combat arena, has definite effects on the women and men who serve. Are there specific identifiable characteristics that veterans exhibit as they face the dying process? Are spouses and families also affected, and if so, how? This presentation will explain how service during a particular era has affected the veteran’s sense of self and his/her dying process. It will discuss how families may also be affected by the veteran’s military experience using anecdotal data.

Because of the staggering number of veterans approaching end-of-life care, VHA has implemented a National Hospice and Palliative Care Program (HPC). The mission of the VA Hospice and Palliative Care Program (HPC) is to honor veterans’ preferences for care at the end of life. This presentation will describe the key elements of the program as well as to illustrate a VISN specific plan to enhance end-of-life care for veterans through increased access, improved quality and enhanced expertise or more effective use of resources.

Resources:
Beresford, Larry. VA Transforms End-of-Life Care for Veterans. (2007) Department of Veterans Affairs and National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

Jennings, Bruce, Kaebnick, Gregory E, and Murray, Thomas H., eds. Improving End of Life Care: Why Has It Been So Difficult? (2005) Hastings Center Special Report 35, no.6.

Feldman, David B. and Periyakoil, M.D., Vyjeyanthi S. "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder at the End of Life.(2006) Journal of Palliative Medicine, 9, 213-218.

Hoge, M.D.,Charles W et al. "Combat Duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mental Health Problems, and Barriers to Care. (2004) The New England Journal of Medicine, 351, 1, 13-22.

Tick, Edward. War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. (2008). Whaton, Ill: Quest Books

Faculty:
DonnaMarie Flanagan-Kaminsky, Grief Counselor for the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center works with veterans & veteran families on VA Hospice. DonnaMarie provides anticipatory grief counseling for the family unit and offers bereavement counseling post death. She conducts education seminars on these issues to VA staff, community hospice agencies and to the
community.

Using Meditation and Image Making in Combination: A Therapeutic Intervention
(Intermediate)
Manzella, Christiane PhD¹, Graham, Saga MA²
¹ Clinical Training Director, New York University, New York, NY  United States
² Art Therapist, Sloan Kettering Hospital, Detroit, MI  United States

This workshop will focus on ways to use meditative techniques and art in combination to facilitate wordless emotions. We will engage in meditative techniques that focus on being closer to our own experience by paying attention to what is present and sensed in body and mind. Using images as a "third" offers patients/clients a safe way to move into deeper awareness of themselves and their relationships. Meditative techniques have also been used as a way to help those who are ill cope and to become present to dimensions of healing that might not usually be accessible or communicated verbally. By listening to what the body is communicating through focusing on the felt sense and presence, the verbally inexpressible is allowed to come forward through symbolic images.

Working with the combination of meditation along with art may help both patients and caregivers as they engage in meaningful dialogues brought forward through experiencing what is not specifically defined but present through symbolic shapes and colors. During this process, we will explore the ways that using meditative techniques and the created images may assist processing and reflections so patients/clients may engage in meaningful dialogue. This combination can change the unknown and perhaps unspeakable into a new and open awareness of a mystery, transforming mystery -- through created images -- into a deep and relaxed state and at the same time facilitate coping that may lead to effective decision-making.

Resources:
Almaas, A.H. (2008). The unfolding now. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Earl Rogers, J (Ed.) (2007). The art of grief. New York: Taylor & Francis Group.

Knill, P., Levine, E. & Levine, S. (2005). Principles and practice of expressive art therapy. London: Jessical Kingsley

Oster, I., Svensk, A. Magusson, E., Thyme, K., Sjodin, M., & Astrom, S. (2006). Art therapy improves coping resources: A randomized controlled study among women with breast cancer. Palliative and Supportive Care, 4, 57-64.

Faculty:
Christiane Manzella, Ph.D., F.T. is currently the Clinical Training director for the counseling psychology and school psychology doctoral programs at new York University. Christiane also teaches two graduate level courses: Thanatology and Grief and Bereavement Counseling and has been teaching these courses since 2000. The first course is a broad overview of the field of Thanatology. The second course covers grief and bereavement counseling. Christiane has an active private practice that includes providing individual grief and bereavement counseling and therapy. As part of her practice, Christiane also provides supervision to post master's degree and post doctoral degree professionals carrying out grief and bereavement therapy and counseling. In May 2008, Christiane presented "Enhancing Listening through Presence" at the ADEC conference in Montreal.

Saga Graham at age twenty, Saga Graham left her native Sweden to pursue studies in the commercial arts at Pratt University in New York. After graduation in textile Design, she worked as a commercial artist executing large-scale tapestries for public spaces for more than ten years. During this time she also gave a number of workshops in painting and weaving. In 1988 she returned to academia and received her master's degree in art therapy at New York University, and is currently a doctoral candidate in health psychology at Walden University, Minnesota. Saga provides art therapy services at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she began her work as an intern six years ago. Saga also maintains a private practice and painting studio where she provides art therapy counseling services for patients living with cancer and for Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers.

Mindful Mortality – Exploring the Spiritual Dimensions of Death Awareness
(Intermediate)
Ford, Tim MA, MS¹
¹Palliative Chaplain, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA United States

There is a depth of understanding mortality that goes beyond the simple fact that what was born must one day die. Professionals and caregivers often speak of a profound depth of acceptance they have encountered in dying patients that leads to spiritual growth and radical change in the lives they live before they die. Efforts to theorize or systematically explore this concept of spiritual surrender at the deathbed often run afoul of differing definitions, cultural beliefs, and experiential integration of spirituality. How then can we invite this level of healing in our clients and ourselves in a professional, multi-cultural manner?
By combining modern developmental approaches to death awareness with traditional contemplative and meditative practices, this workshop will invite participants to deepen their own sense of mortality. Experiencing the emotions of death awareness with controlled and disciplined techniques allows professionals to heighten their empathetic vocabulary and address their personal obstacles in a systematic and supportive way. In addition to personal development, this workshop is designed to assist professionals in creating with their clients unique and appropriate disciplines to integrate the client’s own spiritual resources as they attend to their death.

Resources:
Kastenbaum, R. (2004). On our way: The final passage through life and death. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2005). Wherever you go, there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. New York: Hyperion.

Dzogchen Ponlop. (2007). Mind beyond death. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications.

Sogyal, Gaffney, P., & Harvey, A. (2002). The Tibetan book of living and dying (Rev. and updat ed.). San Francisco, Calif.: HarperSanFrancisco.

Faculty:
Tim Ford is the Palliative Care chaplain for the Thomas Palliative Care Unit at the VCU Health System. We believe that he is currently the only full-time Palliative Care chaplain in the nation. He is a trained chaplain, counselor, and a Certified Thanatologist who specializes in end-of-life spiritual care. As part of his role as chaplain with the award-winning educational team of the Thomas Palliative Care Unit, he studies the effects of spirituality and meaning and engages in community education seminars and lectures. Tim is also a lay-ordained Buddhist and as such is often called upon to be an interfaith voice in community discussions of spirituality, healthcare, and multiculturalism. He has received ordination from the Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche to be a meditation instructor. Tim was recently featured in the Richmond Times Dispatch for his work on the unit.

Afternoon Workshops
1:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Mending: How Can Suicide Awareness, Prevention & Intervention Programs Help. What's the difference?
(Intermediate)
Harper, Jeanne MPS, FT, BCETS, DAPA¹, Kinzel, Tarie MEd. BSN²
¹Professional Speaker, Alpha Omega Venture, Marinette, WI United States
² Vice President and Director of Trainers, LivingWorks Education Inc., Calgary, Alberta  Canada

Sharing of how a community used a replicable procedure to become suicide safer & life-assisting. LivingWorks programs is introduced with exploration thru experiential structured & simulated activities: suicideTalk, SafeTalk, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), WorkingTogether, SuicideCare. Participants will explore differences of awareness, prevention & intervention programs & goals. suicideTALK explores attitudes that inhibit talk about suicide & motivate involvement in suicide prevention. Designed to stimulate or build on concern about suicide & introduce basic helping steps. Discussion of needs of bereaved by suicide & how to build supportive suicide-aware networks in communities, schools & workplaces. safeTALK increases suicide alertness & the ability to recognize invitations. Designed to apply helping steps & move beyond common tendencies to miss, dismiss & avoid suicide. ASIST develops suicide intervention skills & practice using a suicide intervention model. Once ASIST trained caregivers are in the community, SafeTALK alertness training can extend to everyone to broaden the recognition of persons with thoughts of suicide & ensure that they are connected to helpers. Intervention training programs, equip people to respond knowledgeably & competently to persons at risk of suicide by learning & practicing skills in identifying & responding to people at immediate risk of suicide. Becoming aware of their own attitudes towards suicide is a key, as these personal elements affect willingness to help & the effectiveness of the intervention.

Resources:
Harper, J M., Olivetto, E Hurting Yourself: for teens who have attempted to harm themselves. Centering Corporation publisher, 5th printing, 2007.

Ramsay, R, Tanney, B, Lang, W, Kinzel, T (2004). Suicide Intervention Handbook (10th Edition). Calgary: LivingWorks Education

Ramsay, R. (2004). New developments in suicide intervention training. Suicidology 9(3): 10-12.

Ramsay, R. (2004) International perspectives in suicide prevention, education and training. In David Duffy and Tony Ryan. New Approaches to Preventing Suicide: A Manual for Practitioners. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

McAuliffe, N and Perry, L (2007). Make it safer: A health centre's strategy for suicide prevention. Psychiatric Quarterly 78: 295-317

Faculty:
Jeanne M. Harper, Chair of ADEC’s Grief in the Workplace Networking Group since 1996, Clinical Director of Tri-County Business ‘n Industry Incident Response Team, Masters of Pastoral Studies-Family Ministry, Fellow in Thanatology, Bd Cert. Expert in Traumatic Stress, Fellow in Am. Psychotherapy Asso., LBSW, EMDR Therapist, Internal Family Systems trained, Spiritual Director Certificate Program student, Life Coach, International Death Educator, Grief Counselor and Retired Out-Patient Mental Health Clinic Director/Owner, 1113 Elizabeth Avenue - Marinette WI 54143 Cell: 715-923-9549 E: jmharper@czo.net

Tarie Kinzel is Vice President and Director of Trainers, LivingWorks Education, Inc. She has her Masters in Education - Educational Psychology: Counseling and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She provides suicide prevention and intervention program development and caregiver training and support services to an international network of suicide intervention trainers. She became a trainer with LivingWorks in 1985 and partner in the company October, 2001. She also provides consultation and training services to the Suicide Intervention and Education Center and Suicide Prevention Training Program in Calgary, Alberta. Tarie also created and delivered suicide prevention and intervention programs to a wide variety of provincial and national and international communities and organizations.

Living Near Death
(Intermediate)
Childs, Annette PhD¹
¹ Author/Clinician, One Candle, LLC, Reno, NV  United States

This specialty workshop will explore life near death. Based on the author's nearly twenty years of work companioning the dying, topics to be explored include:

Nearing Death Awareness: Nearing death awareness is a very subtle psycho-spiritual realm the dying often move toward as death becomes imminent. This highly subjective and fragile world is one that clinicians and lay people alike can learn to be sensitive and attuned to. This in turn provides comfort to the dying and new understanding to those near them.

The Near Death Experience: the most up to date scientific and anecdotal evidence regarding this phenomenon which has now been reported by millions.

How the Near Death Experience can be used as a teaching tool with the terminally ill and their caregivers.

Exploration of the psycho-spiritual milestones that occur for the dying and their caregivers as death becomes imminent.

Resources:
Childs, Annette (2007) Halfway Across the River: Messages of Hope from the Other Side. The Wandering Feather Press

Augustine, Keith (2008) Near Death Experiences with Hallucinatory Features. The Journal of Near Death Studies. 26, 3-33.

Shwartz, Gary E. ( 2002) The Afterlife Experiments. Atria Books

Wooten-Green, Ron. (2001) When the Dying Speak. Loyola Press.

Faculty:
Annette Childs, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical social worker who has dedicated the bulk of her twenty year practice to assisting those facing hard transitions. As a therapist she has specialized in work with the dying and their caregivers and has assisted many to find peace and meaning at the end of life. In 1997 she received her Ph.D. in psychology. Her doctoral research explored the after effects of the near death experience and other altered states of consciousness. This work contributed original research to the field of near death studies. Her passion and insight into this subject has warranted the attention of many in her field, including the world renown near death researcher Dr. Raymond Moody, who wrote the afterword to her first book. She is the award winning author of two books, "Will You Dance?" and "Halfway Across the River: Messages of Hope from the Other Side" both of which are highly sought resources in the fields of death, grief, and transition.

Appreciating Research That Matters: Foundations of Bereavement Research Literacy
(Introductory)
Shapiro, Ester PhD¹, Hogan, Nancy PhD², Andrea, Walker PhD ³
¹ Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts at Boston, Newton Highlands, MA  United States
² Professor, Associate Dean for Research, Loyola University Chicago, Niehoff School of Nursing, Maywood, IL  United States
³ Associate Professor, Oral Roberts University, Behavioral Science Faculty, Tulsa, OK  United States

The bereavement field is increasingly emphasizing the importance of research supported, knowledge-based or evidence based practice, yet many practitioners in the bereavement field lack the skills to be informed consumers and critical readers of the relevant research literatures. Bereavement research is especially challenging because it must bridge multi-disciplinary clinical and research worlds while keeping them accountable to the bereaved diversity and unique experiences. In this workshop, three clinician researchers who both conduct and teach multi-method quantitative and qualitative research will present foundational concepts and methods required for basic bereavement research literacy. The first part of the workshop (morning session) will begin with an overview of research concepts and methods most relevant to the bereavement practitioner, including Evidence Based Practice, basic survey methods, concepts and psychometric issues in measuring grief, traumatic or complicated grief, and growth; qualitative methods especially thematic narrative analysis relevant to research on grief and meaning-making; and program evaluation. This session will use both lecture and discussion to present research vignettes from the published literature, and resources for locating research relevant to practice. In the second part of the workshop (afternoon session), presenters will select 3 research articles illustrating the research concepts and methods in the first part of the session. Each presenter will work from their own research specialty area, using these articles to review in detail the assumptions made by the researchers, the assets and limitations of research design and methods used, and the implications for practice.

Resources:
Bridging Work Group (2005). Bridging the gap between research and practice in bereavement: report from the Center for the Advancement of Health. Death Studies, 29: 93-122.

Hogan, N. S., Schmidt, L. A. (2002). Testing grief to personal growth model using structural equation modeling. Death Studies, pp. 615-635.

Shapiro, E.R. (2008). Whose recovery of what? Relationships and environments promoting grief and growth. Death Studies, 32:1, 40-58.

Strobe, M. S., Hansson, R. O., Shut, H., and Strobe, W. (2008) (Eds.) Handbook of Bereavement Research and Practice: Advances in Theory and Intervention. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Faculty:
Ester R. Shapiro, Ph.D. (aka Ester Rebecca Shapiro Rook) is Associate Professor of Psychology at University of Massachusetts at Boston, Practicum Coordinator for the Clinical Psychology PhD Program, and Research Associate at the Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Research and Public Policy. A Cuban Jewish Eastern European immigrant, she is committed to helping all families make the most of their opportunities for improving life chances even when facing adversity and loss. Her teaching, research and practice applies a cultural and ecosystem approach to understanding and facilitating positive outcomes during family life cycle transitions by reducing stressors and mobilizing resources linking individual, family and social/community change. She wrote Grief as a Family Process: A Developmental Approach to Clinical Practice (Guilford, 1994; 2nd edition in preparation) and was Coordinating Editor of Maestros Cuero’s Neutrals Vedas (Seven Stories 2000), the Spanish transcultural adaptation of Our Bodies, Ourselves. She has published and presented extensively on a sociocultural model of family development, child and adult bereavement as a family process, culture and grief, and designing and evaluating community-based participatory intervention programs that build resilience among urban, diverse children, adolescents, adults and families using culturally meaningful gender sensitive approaches mobilizing resources for resilience and recovery. She directs the Health Promotion Research Group at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and is a Co-Principal Investigator for the Community Engagement Core of the NIH funded HORIZON Center, a new partnership between UMB & Harvard School of Public Health to reduce health disparities through community participation in public health research.

Nancy Hogan, PhD, RN, FAAN, is distinguished professor and associate dean for research at Loyola University -- Chicago. Dr. Hogan’s research and scholarship has been devoted to generating and testing adolescent and adult theories of grief and loss and the dissemination of those findings. Early in her career, Dr. Hogan recognized that theoretical formulations of grief and loss must be grounded in the experience of those who have suffered loss directly. This realization led to a series of studies that culminated in empirically derived concepts including on-going attachment and personal growth, and generating research instruments to measure child and adult grief. The Grief to Personal Growth Theory and adolescent and adult bereavement questionnaires have undergone rigorous testing, and are used nationally and internationally to guide research and practice. The theory and measures are the foundation of several federally funded longitudinal studies of parent, child, and grandparent bereavement, for which she provided consultative services. Dr. Hogan has published over 50 peer-reviewed bereavement and end-of-life works nationally and internationally. She was awarded the Association of Death, Dying and Counseling 2007 Research Award.

Andrea Walker, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in Family Studies at Oral Roberts University. She is a licensed and internationally certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor and clinician who specializes in grief and loss. Her research uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore clinically meaningful and under-researched areas, including work on college-student bereavement and on grief in the Muscogee Creek tribe.