Teletherapy • Virtual Show & Tell Sessions • Webex Seminars:
In a COVID World Grief Support is Needed Even More
A
s one of the six programs of the NEA Baptist Charitable Foundation, the NEA Baptist Center for Good Grief provides free grief counseling services to all ages.
During the team’s 2019 winter planning session for the 2020 year, the staff brainstormed ideas on reaching those who couldn’t attend in-person sessions because of injury, disability, or distance they lived from the Center. Supported by a grant from the MidAmerica Transplant Foundation, the NEA Baptist Center for Good Grief planned to introduce telemental health services in January of 2021. They expected to take 2020 to plan and develop a program, train staff, and build the infrastructure needed to accommodate remote therapy sessions. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. Things started shutting down. Outside of staff, the Center wasn’t allowed to have people on-site, so they decided to dive in and start providing tele-sessions immediately. The Grief Center staff simply couldn’t imagine not seeing their established clients and families, and worried about those that would soon be seeking services. Adapting telemental health sessions for all clients has required additional innovation. Children, who are primarily seen in a play environment, are now being seen in sibling sets, groups, with a parent, or sent activities virtually or through the mail to help them process their grief. Many sessions are conducted as a “show and tell” of projects and activities these kids have worked on from one session to another. The communication skills among the family units seems to improve with these activities, as often multiple people in the home are working on the projects. Adult clients continue to connect in virtual ways and can see and hear their therapist just as if it is in-person. For teenagers, telemental health sessions may be more productive as there seems to be a sort of security behind a screen. The teens are opening up even more with the use of technology, with little or no issues transitioning to these types of services. Telemental health sessions have created new challenges. Many of a counselor’s tools are in the office and not compatible with video conferencing. In addition, body language and non-verbal cues are important in evaluating a situation, and those aren’t always
28 NEA HEALTH • 2020
portrayed in a virtual setting. Therapists have had to dissuade adult clients from multitasking during sessions and teach them to treat it as though they are in a session in our office. A safe, quiet, and private location is a key component to a productive session. The world of consoling those with physical touch – hugs, a handshake, or a pat on the back – is now unable to happen in our current COVID world. Teletherapy doesn’t allow for those interactions either and are definitely missed when in a vulnerable, intimate, mourning state for our clients. The NEA Baptist Center for Good Grief has served more than 560 people since opening in 2017. In 2019 alone, the Center provided more than 1,200 individual grief sessions to 237 individuals. To date, there are 144 new clients in year 2020. The need for grief support is still prominent in our community, even more so given the COVID19 related deaths that are impacting many families. In Arkansas, there have been over 1,600 deaths due to COVID-19 in 2020 thus far. And, according to the Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model, 1 in 11 Arkansas children will experience the death of a parent or sibling before the age of 18. That ranks 11th in the United States. In Missouri, 1 in 12 children will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18. These numbers are the very reason our Center is open and will continue to meet the needs of our grieving communities. The goal of the NEA Baptist Center for Good Grief is to provide a safe environment for grieving children, teens, and adults to explore and express their feelings after the death of a loved one and to learn to thrive in a world without that special person. Mandy Young, Program Manager Mandy.Young@bmhcc.org Center for Good Grief NEA Baptist Charitable Foundation
