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This Thing Called Life is a podcast dedicated to acts of giving, kindness, compassion, and humanity. Host Andi Johnson introduces you to powerful organ, tissue, and eye donation stories from individuals, families, and front-line healthcare teams. These stories are meant to inspire and remind you that while life can be challenging and unpredictable, it’s also incredibly beautiful. We hope this podcast inspires you to connect with our life-saving and life-healing mission.
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Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
On this episode of This Thing Called Life, Andi is going to talk to Katie Beurket. She is a program coordinator at Fernside. Fernside is an exceptional organization in Greater Cincinnati. The fernside staff is very honored to continue their legacy of supporting grieving children and families. Katie says they provide peer support groups for children ages 3 to 18 and their parents or legal guardians. Tune in to hear about their valuable work.
Episode Highlights:
- We must understand that many people are struggling right now. They could be grieving a variety of different things or could be mourning the loss of a loved one. So we will talk about those feelings of sadness and how we try to best get through during times like this, says Andy.
- Fernside is a children’s grief center,the second oldest children’s grief center in the country. They were founded 35 years ago by Rachel and Paul Burrell, says Katie.
- Andi asks Katie to share about the switch to virtual during covid and how that has been going.
- Andi asks Katie, “You are very passionate about the work you do; What led you to this?”
- Grief will change throughout your lifespan based on your developmental age. There are different signs of grieving children that correlate with the period that they are at.
- Unfortunately, kids at a young age are experiencing loss, but if we are not educating them and telling them what it means now, they will hear about it later on, and it can affect them badly. Educating kids is also part of grief.
- The 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are one of Katie’s favorite age groups because they do start to understand what death means. They understand the permanence of death, and that is when they begin to really ask questions.
- Fernside has over 100 direct service volunteers. They have different lesson plans that are given to them.
- Programs like Fernside and what they offer allow individuals to keep memories alive of their person and create a safe space to talk about it which is so important.
- The National Alliance for Children Grief is an excellent resource for finding things even outside the region. They have a wealth of other information on how to help children who are breathing in different resources, says Katie.
3 Key Points:
- Katie says that they do orientation in their office, and they help give tours to suffering children and families. There is a program called the Pit Crew at Fernside. It is a philanthropy and training.
- A lot of kids don’t understand what happens when people die, they think they are going to come back or don’t understand the permanence of death.
- Fernside is helping families have healthy coping skills to figure out how to move forward because they don’t want anyone to be stuck in their grief forever.
Resources Mentioned: