Steph Irwin is a certified child life specialist. She works with children with cancer in the hospital as well as in the community. Today she talks about caring for the grieving caregiver. Here are some tips that may be useful in your life.
Happy caregiver Thursday and Happy Halloween to you guys. Sorry I'm a couple minutes late getting on here this morning. I've got my, my hug and a mug this morning and I hope you guys have yours too.
Steph Irwin is a certified child life specialist. She works with children with cancer in the hospital as well as in the community. Today she talks about caring for the grieving caregiver. Here are some tips that may be useful in your life.
Good morning, Cadre. Happy caregiver Thursday and Happy Halloween to you guys. Sorry I'm a couple minutes late getting on here this morning. I've got my, my hug and a mug this morning and I hope you guys have yours too. Your little bit of warmth and your little bit of self care this Thursday morning. So I just. For those of you who I have not met yet, I am Steph Irwin. I am a mom of two kids and one of whom is on the autism spectrum. Work wise, I'm a certified child life specialist and I work with children with cancer in the hospital as well as in the community.
Today I have a bit of a heavier topic to talk to you guys about, so I just wanted to give you a little bit of a warning. I wanted to talk to you about an experience that I had this week in the hospital. Good morning, new fe lover Sue. How are you today? So I wanted to talk to you guys about this heavier topic today about caring for the grieving caregiver and just a personal experience that I've had through work this week in the hospital and some different tips that may be useful in your life, whether for yourself or for other caregivers that you know.
Good morning, Jules. Who are going through the grieving process. So this past week, a teenager with cancer who we've worked with for the last two years was supposed to be celebrating her end of treatment. Good morning. She was supposed to be celebrating her end of treatment this week and she was suddenly admitted to the ICU and just very, very sick all of a sudden with a secondary condition that she had developed. So, and unfortunately, she did die yesterday. And you know, I just want to talk to you guys.
She was surrounded by her family and her hospital caregivers as well. And I just want to talk to you guys about different things, different ways that we can support those, those healthcare providers and those families who are going through something similar. The social worker, the child life staff, the medical staff did a wonderful job at what we call legacy building, so helping create these memories that the family can take home with them to remember. To remember their loved one. So they did a wonderful job at memory making, legacy building.
They sent her family home with some meaningful gifts to remember this child by and made her a badge because she wanted to work in the hospital one day. They really just provide such a big support to the families. And so it's important for us as our nonprofit organization who partners with them to take care of the hospital caregivers as well and make sure that they're coping well and they have some respite and they're taking some time for themselves as much as they possibly can as well. So our organization brought in some breakfast for the family yesterday morning and we brought breakfast, the staff just to give them some sustenance to get through the day.
It was a hard day for everybody. Just it's so important for us to care for the caregivers and care for the families that are experiencing this and care for any health care staff who are experiencing this as well. So some things that we like to do and recommend is just checking on families throughout their. Their grieving process, throughout their journey and just let them know you care. And sometimes, sometimes just the act of simply being there is the most important thing you can do. Offer a hug when, when appropriate, if, if they're open to that and help.
You could help the families do an activity to remember their loved one by. Send cards later on. You can send cards through throughout their whole bereavement process as well. Is very helpful to people who are going through this. And you guys, hug your loved ones. Hug your loved ones. You never know what's going to happen on any given day and you never know what people are going through or what they're about to go through. So that is, that is my message for you today, you guys, and I am sending you love.
So much love. And I hope that you all have a wonderful, blessed Thursday and I will talk to you guys soon. Okay? Cheers from my hug and a mug to yours.
