lettertof5commissioners_062209

As you may know, the Governor proposed complete elimination of the Healthy Families Program. He also put forth a proposal to lower the financial eligibility for the program from 250% of FPL down to 200% of FPL. Thankfully, the Budget Conference Committee rejected both of these proposals. The Budget Conference Committee asked for private foundations or organizations to fund the remaining gap to fully fund Healthy Families.

Some of my clients have sent a letter to the First Five Commission Board Members below to ask them to provide $90 Million in funding to close this gap. Also attached is a listing of the First Five Board Members.

We encourage your organizations to send similar letters ASAP, as the MRMIB may vote on June 29th to impose a “waiting list” for Healthy Families starting on July 1st! Any connections you may have with local First Five Commissions would be helpful, too.

Several of our friends in the Legislature, including Senator Steinberg and Speaker Bass, are also asking First Five to assist and we are grateful for this action.

Call or e-mail if you have any questions! Thanks, Terri (for 100% Campaign & PICO CA)

Please address each letter individually, thanks!

First Five Commissioners – email info@ccfc.ca.gov
David Kears, Carla Dartis, Dr. Maria Minon, Molly Munger, Don Attore, Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis

Terri Cowger Hill, Owner
Cowger & Associates
Legislative Advocacy & Consulting to Improve
Health Care in California

Do you remember why we started the Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition?

Today, we are asking you to support our continued efforts on behalf of seriously ill children and their families by becoming an official member of CHPCC.

Become a member. Together, we can make a difference.

You will receive a membership card and certificate along with these and other benefits

Membership Benefits include:

• Participating in our annual legislative day at the state capitol
• Timely updates from Sacramento about children’s healthcare issues
• Networking through quarterly conference calls on topics related to innovations within pediatric palliative care
• Notices about job opportunities in children’s healthcare and hospice
• Access to feedback from our Partnership for Parents Advisory Council
• Discounted registration fees for selected CHPCC programs, events, and materials
• Password protected online educational training through BES
• Web acknowledgement of your membership through childrenshospice.org

And, with your help, CHPCC succeeded! Our accomplishments include:

➢ Enactment and implementation of the Nick Snow Children’s Hospice & Palliative Care Act of 2006.

➢ Development of the new Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Benefit in collaboration with California’s Department of HealthCare Services, to increase hospice and palliative services for an estimated 17,000 of California’s children.

➢ Launch of the award-winning Partnership for Children, a community-based care coordination program recently institutionalized as a Department of Healthcare Services endorsed model in California.

➢ Development and launch of the Benefit Education Support and Training in Pediatrics program, or BEST in Pediatrics. a statewide educational initiative designed to ensure maximum utilization of California’s new Pediatric Palliative Care Benefit.

➢ Created the first and only bilingual web resource addressing the unique needs of parents caring for a seriously ill child. (www.partnershipforparents.org).

➢ Established a Family Advisory Council with an expertise in palliative care to support and advise CHPCC’s advocacy efforts.

Click here to become a member now.

Angel, our inspiration

Diagnosed at age 12 with osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer, Angel, an avid soccer player, went from spending his days on the field to a hospital bed. After several months of treatment, Angel’s doctors, explaining that there was nothing else to be done, sent the distraught family home—a community 70 miles from the nearest children’s hospital. Given that they had no car or home care, Angel’s parents were told to call 911 and to go to the local hospital if his pain became too intense.

At home, Angel’s condition worsened rapidly, but his doctor was unable to refer him to hospice since his family didn’t want to give up hope that a clinical trial might cure his disease. Three days later, Angel was rushed to the local hospital’s crowded emergency room. The staff was unfamiliar with Angel’s treatment protocols and unsure of how to proceed. Hours passed. Angel’s mother begged the staff to do something, anything to help. A decision was made to take Angel upstairs to a hospital room. But on the way—gripping his mother’s hand and in pain—Angel died. His father and siblings sat downstairs in the lobby, unaware and unable to say goodbye. Even now years later, his parents struggle to find peace, haunted by the memory of their oldest son’s final moments in life.

In 2001, we founded the Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition (CHPCC) because we discovered that there were thousands of devastating stories like Angel’s—stories that broke our hearts and fueled our ambition. We reached out to you, and you listened. Together, we undertook the mantle of change and vowed to speak loudly and clearly on behalf of children who are too little and too sick to speak for themselves.

If you would like to fax your letter on your company’s letterhead, please fax to: 

Fax: 916/446-9109 

Thank you.

Date: January 23, 2008

To:

Hon. Denise Ducheny, Chair of Senate Budget Committee
Hon. John Laird, Chair of Assembly Budget Committee
Hon. Elaine Alquist, Chair of Senate Budget Sub #3
Hon. Patty Berg, Chair of Assembly budget Sub #1

From: Children’s Hospice & Palliative Care Coalition

Subject: OPPOSE MEDI-CAL & CCS PROVIDER RATE CUTS

The Children’s Hospice & Palliative Care Coalition and our Public Policy Advisory Committee strongly object to the proposed State Budget reductions to the Medi-Cal and California Children’s Services (CCS) physician provider rates.

The California Children’s Services program, in particular, provides specialty care to children with leukemia and other childhood cancers, as well as other diseases such as cystic fibrosis, pediatric AIDS and sickle cell anemia. A cut in physician reimbursement, when California already has some of the lowest reimbursement rates in the nation, will further compromise access to specialists here. Many children are already experiencing one to four months of delays just to get into a see a specialist in California.

It is devastating when families are given a difficult medical diagnosis for their child. Cutting payments to the specialists who are specifically trained to meet the needs of these patients is quite alarming to us.

Thus, we are strongly opposed to the 10% Medi-Cal and CCS provider rate cuts and urge you to reject these proposals.

Department of Health Care Services
Special Session BBR TBL – RN 08 00367
By Proposal

One Month Delay in Payments (DOF Issues # 91 & 99)
Section 41 (WIC 14041.1)

Reduce Provider Payments by 10% (DOF Issue #101)
Section 46 (WIC 14105.19)

Increasing the Federalizing of the State-Funded Programs through the Safety Net Care Pool by 10% (DOF Issue # 102)
Section 52 (WIC 14166.225)

Reduce Non-Contract Hospitals by 10% (DOF Issue # 103)
Section 53 (WIC 14166.245)

Reduce Long Term care Rates by 10% (DOF Issue #104)
Sections 44 & 45 (WIC 14105.06 – Repeal & Add)

Reduce Demonstration DSH Private Hospitals and Non-Designated Public Hospitals by 10% (DOF Issue #105)
Sections 50 & 51 (WIC 14166.115 & WIC 14166.165)

Reduce Benefits to the Federal Minimum – Chiropractors, Creams & Washes, Acupuncture, Adult Dental, Audiology, Optometrists, Opticians/Optical Labs, Podiatry, Psychology, Speech Therapy (DOF Issues #106 through 115)
Section 47 (WIC 14131.10)

Stop Paying Part B Premiums for Unmet SOC Beneficiaries (DOF Issue #116)
Section 37 (WIC 14005.11)

Eliminate CEC for Children and Restore QSR for Parents and Children (DOF Issues #117 & 118)
Sections 38, 39, & 40 (WIC 14005.25, WIC 14011.16 & WIC 14011.17)

Reduce CCS Case Management by 10% (DOF Issue #119)
Sections 15 & 42 (HSC 123957 & WIC 14094.5)

Reduce EPSDT Case Management by 10% (DOF Issue #120)
Section 17 (HSC 124071)

County Administration (Elimination of CNI-Based COLA to Counties, Estimate Caseload Growth, Reduction of County Administration Base) – (DOF Issues #121, 122 & 123)
Sections 48 & 49 (WIC 14154 & WIC 14154.01)

Reduction in Cost Reimbursement due to FI Transition to EMT in Print, Postage, & Parcel Cost Reimbursement (DOF Issue #124)
Section 43 (WIC 14104.93)

CCS Reduce Provider Payments by 10% for Non-Contract and 10% for Other Provider Rates (DOF Issue #126)
Sections 14 & 16 (HSC 123952 & HSC 123958)

GHPP Reduce Provider Payments by 10% for Non-Contract and 10% for Other Provider Rates (DOF Issue #127)
Section 19 (HSC 125152)

Rural Health Services Delivery (DOF Issue #130)
Section 18 (HSC 124400.01)

Partnering for Children: A New Campaign to Raise Awareness and Funds to Support Children with Life-Threatening Conditions

(New Orleans, LA) – The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition, and the National Hospice Foundation announced on Thursday, November 29, Partnering for Children, a national awareness campaign to help get the word out about compassionate, family-centered healthcare for children with life-threatening conditions. The announcement was made in

New Orleans at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s (NHPCO) 8^th Clinical Team Conference by NHPCO President Dr. Don Schumacher and Ms. Melissa Gilbert, the director, actor, producer, and activist who currently serves as board president of the Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition (CHPCC).

“Working together through our Partnering for Children campaign, we can make more people aware of the possibilities that exist to improve care and support for children and their families,” said Ms. Gilbert. “It’s time for all of us to recognize that we can make a profound and lasting difference by joining together to bring comfort and hope to children and families when they need it most.”

Partnering for Children is reaching out to compassionate people nationwide with messages and suggested actions to raise awareness of the possibilities that exist to improve care and support for children and their families and to let families know that they are not alone on this journey.

“I am honored to partner with Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition,” said Dr. Schumacher. “I know that working together we can raise awareness about the importance of pediatric palliative care, which is dedicated to ensuring that seriously ill children and their families get the compassionate medical, emotional, and spiritual support they need to hold on to hope, whatever form it takes.

Ms. Gilbert, who visited yesterday with families in New Orleans added, “In an ideal world, the words ‘children’ and ‘hospice’ would never go together, but unfortunately sometimes they do and when they do, we owe children and their families compassionate, family centered care.”

Partnering for Children is focused on engaging partners in an effort to improve healthcare for children with life-threatening conditions and increase support for their families.

Activities include:

Community Engagement

Free outreach materials and engagement strategies to engage parents and healthcare providers in efforts to raise awareness about pediatric palliative care and hospice.

Resources for Parents, Siblings and Caregivers

Free online information for families and caregivers to provide support and to help them find the services they need.

Virtual Resource Library

An online catalog of educational resources that palliative care and hospice providers can use to create or enhance their care delivery to seriously-ill children and their families.

National Media Campaign

Communication tools to engage members of the media, publicize outreach activities, raise funds and gain credibility.

In conclusion, Dr. Schumacher said, “It’s time for each of us to recognize that we can make a profound and lasting difference by joining together to bring comfort and hope to children and families when they need it most.

Partnering for Children is a national awareness campaign to help get the word out about compassionate, family-centered healthcare for children with life-threatening conditions. The campaign is reaching out to parents, healthcare professionals, the media and funders about the benefits of palliative care and hospice. Partnering for Children is a collaborative effort between the Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the National Hospice Foundation – and you. To learn more about Partnering for Children and how you can get involved, visit www.partneringforchildren.org.

Contacts:

Jon Radulovic, NHPCO
Ph: 703-837-3139 jradulovic@nhpco.org

Ann Andrews Morris, CHPCC
Ph: 202-746-6091 ann@childrenshospice.org

Visit www.partneringforchildren.org.

The Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition (CHPCC), is a dynamic social movement that works to overcome obstacles to care for children with life-threatening conditions and their families through collaboration with children’s hospitals, hospices, home health, social service, individuals, and grassroots agencies. CHPCC advocates for policies and programs that address the harsh realities faced by seriously ill children–particularly their need for coordinated, comprehensive support that integrates medical, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual services from the point of diagnosis throughout the course of treatment.

Since Lori Butterworth and Devon Dabbs founded CHPCC in 2001, I have been awed by the tremendous progress they have made in revolutionizing end-of-life care for children. Their three core programs are summarized as follows: (1) Compassionate Reimbursement Initiative for Children (CRI); a California State policy change initiative that effectively investigated and brought awareness to the shortcomings of existing hospice benefits as they applied to children and successfully advocated for systematic change. Through CRI, CHPCC is now working with California’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) in the implementation of a new Pediatric Palliative Care Benefit package which can dramatically improve access to end-of-life care for thousands of California’s children; (2) Partnership for Children; based upon recommendations from the Institute of Medicine report “When Children Die: Improving Palliative and End-of-Life Care for Childen and their Families” (2002), CHPCC designed the Partnership for Children, a model program offering critical care coordination in a family-oriented setting for children 0-21 with life-threatening conditions and their families on California’s Central Coast; and The Partnership for Parents (www.partnershipforparents.org), the first and only bilingual web resource addressing the unique needs of parents with seriously ill children.

It is for these programs that I wish to nominate CHPCC for the CAN Achievement in Innovation Award.

Innovative programs and how they advanced our mission

Palliative and hospice care, according to the Children’s International project on Palliative/Hospice Services, is the science and art of lessening physical, psychosocial, and emotional and existential suffering. Palliative and hospice care is assistive to children and families whether the overall goals of care are to cure, prolong life, maximize the quality of life that remains or ease the pain of bereavement.

According to Dr. Marian Dalsey, Chief, Children’s Medical Services, it is estimated that nearly 17,000 California children aged birth to 19 are living with life-threatening illnesses and could benefit from these services. While Medi-Cal includes hospice benefits, they are rarely used. In 2005, only 422 children accessed hospice benefits because of harsh life expectancy restrictions, the requirement to cease curative treatments, and other systemic issues.

Successfully addressing these complex problems in California, CHPCC rallied lawmakers, families, and community based organizations and effectuated the passage of The Nick Snow Children’s Hospice & Palliative Care Act of 2005—a landmark step toward allowing seriously ill children to access hospice and palliative care without giving up curative treatment. CHPCC is currently consulting with DHCS on developing and implementing these policy changes in the form of a Pediatric Palliative Care Benefit package due for release in early 2008.

Drawing from the Institute of Medicine report that comprehensive pediatric palliative care is impossible without a designated care coordinator, the Partnership for Children, based in Watsonville, offers critically ill children and their families’ support through two bilingual Nurse Care Coordinators. The Nurses forge intimate relationships with families and provide a case-specific community-based Plan of Care which identifies local services and specialty resources that best serve the family from diagnosis—throughout the course of treatment—and if the child dies into bereavement. By integrating care with children’s hospitals such as Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and UCSF, local hospitals and agencies, families receive medical, home care, or palliative care support; pain and symptom management for their child; transportation assistance to and from treatment; emotional and spiritual support for the child and family; written and verbal translation assistance; resolution of practical needs, such as respite; assistance with educational issues including integration into the classroom and tutoring; emergency financial assistance; bereavement support before and after death; as well as funeral assistance. Helping each family navigate their way through the medical system, the insurance paperwork, and the emotional trauma of a child’s life-threatening illness, Partnership for Children establishes continuity and promotes relative ease and comfort during a time wrought with uncertainty.

As a central hub for community-based agencies such as Central Coast Visiting Nurses Association, Hospice Caring Project, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jacob’s Heart Children’s Cancer Association, Catholic Charities, Heartland Hospice, Pediatric Services of America, Santa Cruz Visiting Nurses Association, Santa Cruz AIDS Project, Watsonville Hospital, Natividad, and specialty hospitals (UCSF Medical Center and Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford), the Partnership for Children also effectively streamlines communication and expands the capacity of community-based agencies as they work to alleviate the extraordinary burdens faced by children with life-threatening conditions and their families on the Central Coast.

The Partnership for Children is essential to CHPCC’s ongoing advocacy efforts. Now institutionalized by DHCS as an endorsed replicable model for the State, the Partnership acts as a data collection site for the State and tracks the financial, medical, and social outcomes of a local, rural care coordination model as it impacts the children, families, local providers, and specialty pediatric care centers.

The lack of a centralized resource designed specifically to help parents handle the trauma of a child’s life-threatening illness prompted CHPCC to create the Partnership for Parents web resource (www.partnershipforparents.org). The site addresses the needs of parents wherever they are in the trajectory of their child’s illness or through their bereavement process. Topics include: how to talk your child’s doctor, making sense of medical information and terms, preparing for crisis, and coping with grief, among others. Currently offered in English and Spanish, CHPCC is working to expand the language capacity of the site.

By providing these previously non-existent services, CHPCC is overcoming barriers to comprehensive and coordinated hospice and palliative care for children and families.

Through CHPCC’s efforts, pediatric hospice and palliative care is being institutionalized in our local and statewide community. Measurable outcomes to this end include:

I. Implementation of the Nick Snow Children’s Hospice & Palliative Care Act (2006), the first step in increasing access to hospice and palliative services for an estimated 17,000 of California’s children.
II. Launch of the Partnership for Children in September of 2005, a community-based palliative care coordination program recently institutionalized as a DHCS endorsed model in California. Provided 5,000 hours of direct care coordination to 150 families. Provided over 350 hours of capacity building and education to local agencies addressing the unique needs of seriously ill children and their families.
III. Launch of the Partnership for Parents web resource in April 2005: 40,430 registered visits, and a corresponding 24,432 visits registered for the Spanish language site (padresconpadres.com).

Delivery of Service

The services offered by CHPCC through its three core programs are non-duplicative and unique in both their approach and delivery. Each was designed with the inclusion of parents, providers, and policy makers in an effort to address an unmet need either on a national, statewide, or local level. Through research, advocacy and strategic alliances, CHPCC has created a comprehensive pediatric hospice and palliative care benefit package supported by DHCS. The Partnership for Children is effectively bridging chasms that have existed between seriously ill children and their families, and community-based and specialty care providers, ensuring a seamless continuum of care where none previously existed.

The Partnership for Parents, the only resource of its kind, offers information that is difficult if not impossible to find elsewhere. Through providing these services, CHPCC has successfully identified the areas where previous services fell short and has adequately met these unique and crucial demands on behalf of seriously ill children and their families. CHPCC’s systematic approach to dealing with the root causes of the program through CRI; addressing gaps in community-based service through the Partnership for Children; and, offering immediate and comprehensive support through the Partnership for Parents is creating a safety net for children with life-threatening conditions in California and establishing a replicable model that is already drawing the interest of a national audience.

Partnership for Children Nurse Care Coordinators Sophia Schultz, RN and Shoshana Spielman, RN were honored with the Kendall Inspirational Award by the Hospice Foundation. Because of their incredible dedication to children and families, Lisa Buell, mother of Madison Buell who died at age two, nominated Sophia and Shoshana. Please take a moment to read Lisa’s touching nomination…

By Lisa Buell

When our first daughter Madison was born, a visiting nurse came to our home for a traditional follow-up visit. She was kind and compassionate, full of information and resources, and by the time she left, I felt like she was a friend. Five months later, our beautiful baby was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in her pelvis. Our lives were never the same. My partner and I spent much of our time at the hospital dealing with Madison’s treatment regime. Once she was home, we provided her nursing care ourselves; the nursing care; blood draws, shots, hyper alimentation, dressing changes, and IV antibiotics. We managed insurance eligibility issues and made certain there was authorization for each costly procedure.

We also experienced the joy of parenting. We read to her, sang, danced, and played all the silly games parents do. As Madison’s first year of treatment came to a close, her doctor suggested that we hire a visiting nurse to help alleviate some of the burden of Madison’s round-the-clock medical care. We agreed. The day came and our visiting nurse arrived. What a stroke of luck! She was the very same lovely woman who had befriended us after Madison’s birth.

As we explained Madison’s illness and her care requirements, this same nurse who had been so confident and full of enthusiasm a year earlier, was visibly shaken. “I usually don’t do this type of nursing,” I remember her saying. She looked on as we changed our daughter’s dressings in the usual manner, one of us holding her arms over her head while the other did the cleaning and bandaging—both of us singing You Are My Sunshine.

When we finished, a heavy silence fell over the room. We looked over to find the nurse wiping away tears. Over and over, she said, “I don’t know how you do it, I just don’t know how you do it.” Frankly, I didn’t know myself, but seeing her fall apart like that was terrifying–if she couldn’t do it, how could we! The visiting nurse volunteered to drop Madison’s blood sample to the lab for us that day. She was due to return in a few days. We never saw her again.

I remember wondering what she meant that day when she said “I usually don’t do this type of nursing.” Now I know what this type of nursing means. It means assessing the child/patient and the family, coordinating care, communicating with the parents and extended family, advocating, and being willing to have the difficult conversations. It means being trained in port care, pain management, ventilators, hyper alimentation, and blood draws. It means taking time to sit and talk, to remember birthdays, and to arrange rides and respite. It means holding a dying child in your arms. It also means having the ability to hold reality and acceptance in the one hand, and the family’s hearts in the other. That visiting nurse was talking about a very unique person: a children’s hospice nurse.

Only an exceptional human can be a children’s hospice nurse and we are blessed to have two in our community, Sophia Schultz and Shoshanna Spielman. Combined they have over thirty-five years of hospice nursing experience, the majority of which has been spent caring for seriously ill children and their families. Recently, I sat down with these amazing women to ask them about their professional and personal lives. “It’s just in our blood, it’s a part of us,” Sophia explained. They told me that when they tried to take a break and do other kinds of nursing, they were drawn back into it. “Once you have cared for one child with a life limiting illness, suddenly you’re considered the expert. You are assigned all of these kinds of cases because you can do it, and nobody else wants to–that’s how I started so many years ago,” said Shoshanna.

Though I was trying to learn more about them, they steered the conversation back to their main concern in life: how they could better serve families like ours. They began to ask me questions. What was our biggest challenge in caring for Madison? What would we have liked to have happen differently? What worked and what didn’t? Their passionate and selfless commitment to improving care for children emerged again.

In 2005 the Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition launched the Partnership for Children program, a rural care coordination program serving critically ill children and their families on California’s Central Coast. Shoshanna and Sophia were quick to sign on. They have been effectively managing the day-to-day needs of some forty-five families, juggling treatment schedules, transportation needs, and most important, providing a compassionate, supportive presence for families challenged by the nearly unbearable trauma of caring for a sick child. Shoshanna and Sophia are also bilingual and sensitive to cultural differences. They help families with limited English to navigate the maze of medicine by providing translation support and advocacy. Many other health care professionals in Santa Cruz and Monterey have benefited from the pediatric training that Shoshanna and Sophia are providing. They have worked tirelessly to develop effective relationships between providers and families, easing communication at every level of care.

Both Shoshanna and Sophia are dedicated and inspired professionals on the forefront of the pediatric and palliative care movement doing the work that many in the nursing field would not, or cannot do. They provide comprehensive care to families in crisis, bringing them hope—no matter what form hope may take. These two women are empowering and supporting families to be present during a sacred time. Through their example and contribution, these two women have laid the groundwork for improved care for critically ill children from throughout California.

It is with a full and grateful heart that I nominate them for the Hospice Foundation award. Shoshanna and Sophia have already received the gift that working with our children and families gives. I am hopeful that they can be recognized with a visual marker for the exceptional care and comfort they provide. Their deeds will be remembered.
Warmly,
Lisa Buell

CHPCC is receiving the award for the development and implementation of a new pediatric hospice and palliative care benefit for California which is modeled after the organization’s Partnership for Children Program. Especially highlighted is CHPCC’s creative approaches to better serving children with life-threatening conditions and their families.

Co-Founders and Executive Directors Lori Butterworth and Devon Dabbs were nominated by Gay Walker, Director of Trinity Kids Care Hospice in Torrance, California.

Click here to read nomination. 

We often mean well by saying “call me if you need anything,” but the reality is that it is best to offer something specific you can and will do and then just do it. This is especially true when a family is dealing with a serious illness or a death. There are tangible things you can do to help ease their burden…

• Make a meal that is easy to reheat
• Invite siblings over to your home to play so mom and dad can have some time to themselves
• Run errands
• Pick kids up from school or drive them to their daily activities
• Make sure that the house is stocked with the kids’ favorite cereal or other familiar comfort foods
• Do yard work
• Clean the house
• Mow the lawn
• Do the laundry
• Honor each family member’s grieving experience and expression – recognizing the differences is a true gift.
• Offer to go with the parents to help plan or hold their hand while they make arrangements for the memorial service and/or funeral
• Offer to assist the family in preserving mementos. Let the family set the timetable for this as they need to discover the right timing for themselves
• Send a note or a letter (see Those Difficult Cards & Letters, page 29)
• Remember them during holidays and birthdays, mother’s/father’s days. Notes and letters that continue over time are priceless. Don’t worry about “reminding them of their child” they are already remembering and often grieving for their child during these milestones and will be comforted to know that their child is remembered by others.

Grief is the natural reaction to any loss. There is no “right” way to grieve, but when we feel grief it is important that we, both as children and adults, have the ability to find the strength within us to express our grief in ways that heal us and help us grow into Loving human beings.

We all experience loss throughout the course of our lives. Children moving into a new home experience the loss of friends at the old school and the comforts of a familiar home. Children experience loss when parents divorce or grandma dies. They can feel loss as they move from childhood into adolescence; when it is no longer cool to play with dolls or other “childish” toys or games. When a child is sick, regardless of whether the condition is minor or lifethreatening, parents experience profound loss. Grief is the natural reaction to any loss. There is no “right” way to grieve, but when we feel grief it is important that we, both as children and adults, have the ability to find the strength within us to express our grief in ways that heal us and help us grow into loving human beings. This is where a chaplain can help.

Many people have an outdated view of what a Chaplain is and what a chaplain does. I have seen fear in people’s eyes when I am introduced as the chaplain because they think I am there just to “give last rights.” A chaplain can be anything from a pastor helping a family with their religious rituals, to a friend providing a shoulder during a difficult time. A chaplain is not necessarily religious and we do not promote any particular religion or faith. Our job can be to reconnect you and your family back to a lost faith or help you find a faith that works for you. Mostly a chaplain can help you find hope and strength during your greatest hour of need, helping you come to terms with loss, find and redefine hope and healing.

If you have a loved one who is seriously ill or have spiritual need and would like to know more about chaplaincy services, you can call me at the Central Coast Visiting Nurses Association.

Phone: 831.758.8243.