| Hospice Resources & Information - HNA |
Bereavement Hospice of North Alabama provides optional follow up grief services and recommended readings for 13 months following the death of a loved one. The purpose of this program is to provide encouragement and emotional support to the bereaved family during their time of grief and loss. The program consists of letters and cards of encouragement, educational materials, phone calls and visits periodically from a member of our staff.Helpful books on dealing with grief:  “Dying Well” by Ira Byock In "Dying Well", Ira Byock points out that whether its the patient or the family, telling someone's life story is a big part of the process to learning to deal with their death. It is a poignant book written by a man who has been a hospice physician for 20 years prior to writing the book. He has served as a past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine. He believes, "Nobody should have to die in pain. Nobody should have to die alone."  “Final Gifts, Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying” by Maggie Callanan "Final Gifts, Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying" is Maggie Callanan's other book that she co-authored with Patricia Kelley and also worth reading. It is more for the caregiver or the person who may have a hard time communicating with someone they love who is dying. The back cover: "When someone we love is dying...it's hard to know how to help, what to do, what to say. Yet if we know how to listen and what to look for, the dying themselves can often supply the answers, letting us know what they need to hear and express to allay their fears and face death with serenity."  “On Grief and Grieving” by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David KesslerElizabeth Kübler-Ross wrote the book on death and grieving. Her seminal first book, On Death & Dying, set the standard for counseling about mortality and mourning. Counselors discovered that the five stages of dying that she identified (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) also applied to other difficult and catastrophic life crises. In her final book, completed before she died in 2004, Kübler-Ross and coauthor David Kessler revisit the five stages to create a deeply emphatic and accessible guide for those in grief. In this powerful book of guidance, Kübler-Ross utilizes practical wisdom and spiritual insights garnered from her decades of experience as a psychiatrist, humanitarian, and grief counselor. |
