Innovations in End-of-Life Care
an international journal of leaders in end-of-life care
FAMILY BEREAVEMENT PROGRAM
CHILD PROGRAM
© 1996 Prevention Research Center, Arizona State University.
Published here with permission.
SESSION 1:
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROGRAM
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- Share information about the grief process and the impact of this process on family functioning;
- Encourage discussion of grief related issues and feelings within the family;
- Provide an organizing framework and discuss specific objectives for the Family Bereavement Program; (briefly mention the experiences/skills that some families have found helpful in this process).
PROCESS OBJECTIVES
- Build cohesion and rapport;
- Normalize and validate family discussion and feelings about grief related issues;
- Identify goals for the program
SESSION 2:
FAMILY TIME
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- Children learn about positive and problematic parent-child relationships;
- Children learn how to communicate positive messages to their parents;
- Children are taught the relationship between positive events and positive feelings; and
- Children learn about "Family Time."
SESSION 3:
THE EVENT-THOUGHT-FEELING LINK
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- To teach kids how to work as a team and create a supportive atmosphere;
- Monitor kids on their progress on their personal goals and family goals;
- Facilitate discussion about feelings of anger after the death of a parent; and
- Teach kids how to monitor hopeful and hurtful thoughts and how these thoughts affect their feelings.
PROCESS OBJECTIVES
- Encourage communication and problem solving among the kids to help one another — emphasize the importance of teamwork;
- Normalize and validate angry feelings following the death of a parent; and
- Allow children time to practice monitoring their own thoughts
SESSION 3.5:
FIRST INDIVIDUAL SESSION (1½ hours)
- Check in with the kids to see if they understand and are using the skills taught in the program.
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- The content goals of this session are to review and trouble shoot:
- Family Time
- Giving Parents Positives
- Monitoring Helpful and Hurtful Thoughts
- Personal Goals
PROCESS OBJECTIVES
- The process goals for this session are to:
- Assess the stressors a child is dealing with and how program skills may be relevant to these stressors;
- Assess how much the child is using the program skills at home;
- Identify ways in which use of these skills may be helpful for the child;
- Help the child gain a sense of efficacy in use of these skills and;
- Provide personalized feedback in the use of these skills in the child’s natural environment.
SESSION 4:
DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN TYPES OF HURTFUL & HOPEFUL THOUGHTS
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- Discuss bereavement feelings of sadness;
- Review personal goals of monitoring hurtful and hopeful thoughts; monitor continuation of Family Time and Quality Time;
- Identify Self Put-Downs and Self-Boosters;
- Identify Doom and Gloom thoughts and Positive thoughts;
- Observing how Hurtful and Hopeful thoughts make them feel; and
- Practice getting rid of hurtful thoughts.
PROCESS OBJECTIVES
- Continue to build cohesion and group support;
- Have kids see the personal relevance of hurtful and hopeful thoughts; and
- Begin the experience of getting rid of hurtful thoughts.
SESSION 5:
REPLACING HURTFUL THOUGHTS WITH HOPEFUL THOUGHTS
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- Discuss bereavement feelings of guilt;
- Review Personal Goals of Monitoring Hurtful and Hopeful thoughts and replacing Hurtful with Hopeful thoughts;
- Discuss how Hopeful thoughts make sense and Hurtful thoughts often don’t make sense;
- Identify two simple ways to remember Hopeful thoughts; and
- Teach four step method of using Hopeful thoughts {Stop-Think-Brainstorm-Choose}.
SESSION 6:
GOOD COMMUNICATION 1: SHARING YOUR FEELINGS
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- Review personal goals about using hopeful thoughts;
- Learn the key parts of good communication: finding a good time, knowing what you want, using an I message, good conclusion;
- Learn how to seek emotional support from parents; and
- Kids practice applying good communication skills for seeking understanding.
PROCESS OBJECTIVES
- Build group cohesion and support;
- Throughout session, encourage kids to recognize hurtful thoughts about miss-communication and encourage replacement by hopeful thoughts;
- Have children recognize relevance of using good communication skills; and
- Have children experience feeling understood by parent during conjoint.
SESSION 7:
TEACHING APPROPRIATE RESPONSIBILITY FOR PROBLEMS AND AVOIDING NEGATIVE APPRAISALS ABOUT EXCESS RESPONSIBILITY
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- Teach children that there are certain types of problems that are not their responsibility to fix;
- Teach children to change negative appraisals of excess responsibility, negative self-statements, and doom and gloom thinking;
- Add "Not My Job to Fix" to the Problem Solving for Hopeful Thoughts Steps; and
- Add "Positive Actions" to the Problem Solving for Hopeful Thoughts Steps.
SESSION 8:
PROBLEM SOLVING
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- Children will share with group members any unusual experiences that they’ve had since their parent or guardian has died; and
- Review with the children the four steps of effective problem solving Stop, Think, Brainstorm, Choose, and teach the new questions that they might ask during each of the steps; and
- Have children start problem-solving with a current problem they are experiencing.
SESSION 9:
I-MESSAGE FOR PROBLEM-SOLVING
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- Children learn to seek instrumental support from parents;
- Children learn to decrease the use of You Messages by learning to use I-messages;
- Children practice using these I-Message for problem solving skills to solve problems; and
- Children prepare I-Message for problem solving to give to their parent.
SESSION 9.5/10.5:
SECOND INDIVIDUAL SESSION
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- Review adolescent’s use of program skills; and
- Child practices using I-message for problem solving.
PROCESS OBJECTIVES
- Encourage self-efficacy throughout by observing how well they can handle things.
SESSION 10:
INTEGRATION OF PROGRAM SKILLS
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- The goals of this session are to:
- check in with the children to see how their personal goals are going and help them revise their plans to reach their personal goals; and
- teach children to integrate all of the skills they have learned in the program to solve hypothetical problems in a KID COPE TV exercise.
SESSION 11:
SKILL REVIEW AND RELAPSE PREVENTION
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- Review skills learned in program;
- Have each participant identify regular reminders of new skills;
- Have each participant learn how to deal with the holidays and special times; and
- Have each participant identify future problems that might be tough to handle.
PROCESS OBJECTIVES
- Have children recognize their personal accomplishments over the past 11 weeks;
- Have children assist each other in developing reminders and anticipating future problems; and
- Reinforce children’s sense of self-efficacy.
SESSION 12:
REVIEW AND CLOSURE
CONTENT OBJECTIVES
- To give children an opportunity to reflect on the things that have changed for them over the course of the program;
- To provide the children with a feeling of efficacy regarding their ability to cope with problems; and
- To provide some closure experience for the group.
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