A pilot project at John F. Ross high school will offer in-school help for students dealing with grief.
Believed to be the first of its kind in an Ontario school, it will allow students who are experiencing grief through the death of someone close the opportunity to discuss their feelings and provide some tools to help them through the process.
The program, which runs eight weeks over lunch hour starting Oct. 26, is the brainchild of guidance counsellor Amanda St. Jean, Erin McInnis, community services coordinator with Hospice Wellington, and Dr. Laura Brown, a psychologist with Norfolk Psychological Services.
"We have a willingness here to help the kids, but we don't always have the expertise," said St. Jean of the school setting.
She is currently reaching out to 30 students identified by school staff to invite them into the program. There are likely others staff is unaware are going through grieving.
The facilitators expect 10 students to join the group, which will meet for pizza over lunch hour once a week.
Brown said the goal isn't about "fixing," it's about giving the students skills to be able to continue through their grief journey and provide skills and information they can use in the future.
"There is very, very little out there for teens," said Brown. "There's not a lot of people that know how to work with teens, know how to reach teens and know what it is they need."
McInnis said it's not about "Oh, I completely understand" because no one ever completely understands what an individual is going through.
"Each person's experience is very different," she said.
The three started discussing the project after getting together as part of last year's school Ten 4 Ten cancer fundraising campaign.
McInnis said there is a lot of support for younger children, because it is an adult that transports and finds that support.
Not so much for teens.
"Plus with younger children, we can work with their parents as well," Brown said. "Teens are not as physically attached to their parents and their peers tend to have more influence."
The three said school offers confidential help, with peer support, on the students' home turf, so to speak.
"Schools often don't know that something has happened in a family and if they do know they don't know how to address that," Brown said. "And if they do know, they don't know how to address that and they don't know what their role is in helping a young person address that."
The three convinced the Upper Grand School board that the program would be beneficial to both the students and the school, with better attendance and better focus from students dealing with grief.
"We don't do death incredibly well in this society. We don't talk about it easily and there's a lot of trying to shelter our children from it," Brown said.
"This is a part of life and it's going to happen again. They need to have the tools to deal with it."
Students do not need parents' permission to participate, St. Jean said.
Anyone seeking more information on the group can call St. Jean at 519-822-7090 X316 or at [email protected].
