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Trainer’s tip: Giving support to others

LTC Nursing Assistant Trainer, August 27, 2009

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The best way to promote healing when someone is grieving is to listen. We express feelings through spoken words, so listening helps the grief-stricken person express, examine, and understand his or her emotions. Crying with someone can be healthy and healing, if done at an appropriate time and place. While each person hurts individually, we can grieve together and support each other. To provide support to someone who is grieving, do the following:

• Share the sorrow. Allow the grieving person to talk about his or her feelings of loss and share memories of the deceased.
• Don’t offer false comfort. It doesn’t help the grieving person to say, “It was for the best,” or, “You’ll get over it in time.” Instead, offer a simple expression of sorrow and take time to listen.
• Offer practical help. Give needed recourses to the grieving person and help him or her make arrangements.
• Be patient. Remember that it can take a long time to recover from a major loss. Like any wound, it takes time for grief to heal.         
• Encourage professional help when necessary. Suggest professional help when you feel someone is experiencing too much pain to cope alone.

This is an excerpt from HCPro’s book, The CNA Training Solution, Second Edition.

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