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Message from the Chair
Hello BON members,
Happy New Year and I hope you are warm and safe on this cold January day!
The Board has had a full day planning meeting in November 2015 and continues to look at the way BON will function as we move into the future. We have planned a Board meeting in February to look more at strategic planning for BON.
The BON Conference will take place October 13, 14 and 15, 2016 at Geneva Park. Please mark that in your calendars! Also, if you would like to be involved in conference planning, let me know.
It is that time again to renew your BON membership. The deadline for membership renewal is March 14th, 2016.
To ensure that you or your group/organization receive all of the benefits of membership and are correctly listed in the BON directory, please contact Kelly Teigrob, BON's Administrative Assistant.
BON’s email address; info@bereavementontarionetwork.ca
BON’s phone number; 519-290-0219
BON’s mailing address; 174 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Ontario N4S 6B1
A copy of the membership form is attached to this BONewsletter. Please compete the form and return it with your membership fee as soon as possible.
This year when you receive your receipt you will find two exciting surprises! First, you will find your BON website password which will allow you to access the members-only area of the BON website. Please use the area and do not share that password with others. Second, you will receive your new BON lapel pin with new logo (if you did not attend the 2015 BON Conference and receive one then). If you have already sent in your membership renewal, thank you for your continued support!
Finally, remember that BON is a member-driven-volunteer-organization and as a member, your input and suggestions are of crucial importance to the well-being of the organization. Please contact me at; cindy@papillonpsychotherapy.ca with any thoughts, ideas, suggestions!
Peace and Joy,
Cindy Elkerton
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BON Membership
Take time to renew your BON membership.
Please ensure that you or your group/organization receive all of the benefits of being a BON member and are correctly listed in the BON Directory.
The membership form can be accessed online here. Please complete the form and return it with your membership fee as soon as possible. If you require a hard copy of the membership form or have difficulty accessing the form, please contact Kelly Teigrob, BON Administrative Assistant.
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BON Conference 2016
Mark Your Calendars for our upcoming Conference
The 2016 BON Conference will be on Thursday, October 13, 2016 to Saturday, October 16, 2016
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Regional Reports
BON Regional Representatives keep you connected with the bereavement news and events happening within your region. Click here to find out the what is happening in your community and the regions across Ontario. Regional events can be found under Upcoming Events.
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BON Regional Representatives are the face of BON in the 16 Regions of Ontario.
If you are interested in bringing your community together to improve bereavement support and resources, please take time to learn more about being a Regional Representative. Please note: there are Regional Representative openings available.
With sincere thanks,
Marny Williams
BON Vice Chair, Regional Rep Liaison
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Introduction to Bill 141: Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness, Research and Care Act
By Jamie McCleary, volunteer and bereaved mother.
The loss of a child, in any stage of life, is quite possibly the most difficult event, any parent will ever experience. When a friend, or family member dies, we mourn the loss of their presence, we miss the things we used to experience with them, we mourn the place they held in our lives. With the loss of a child, or an unborn baby, we are left with endless questions, and no concrete idea of what we will be grieving. Every period of time that passes, the grief evolves into something new. Would that baby have been anything like our neighbour’s five year old daughter, if she had survived? Would he be playing on the baseball team with his older brother? What would he look like today? How different would our lives be, if our babies were still here? Even the experiences we take most for granted, like remembering someone’s eyes, or the sound of their voice, are mourned, for those parents who never experienced their child alive, outside the parent’s body. For full article, click here.
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Smiling At Death
A Closer Look at Dying
by Evelyn MacKay, RT
This documentary film in video format, with an evocative title, explores end-of-life situations in a sensitive and frank manner. The Guelph area film maker, Alberta Nye, had a near-death experience at age 22 and years later she was with her ex-husband when he died. Both these life changing experiences inspired Nye to create this insightful account of end-of-life events.
While she includes mention of her own experiences, she also interviews a variety of people who have witnessed unusual happenings at the bedside of the dying. These others relate near-death or pre-death experiences in which they witnessed surprising and supportive perspectives. ...
For full article, click here.
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Resources to Share
- Dignity Therapy: Final Words for Final Days by Harvy Max Chochinov Maintaining dignity for patients approaching death is a core principle of palliative care. Translating that principle into methods of guiding care at the end of life, however, can be a complicated and daunting task. Dignity therapy, a psychological intervention developed by Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov and his internationally lauded research group, has been designed specifically to address many of the psychological, existential, and spiritual challenges that patients and their families face as they grapple with the reality of life drawing to a close. Review by Amazon.ca
- Healing After Loss, Daily Meditations for Working Through Grief by Martha Whitmore Hickman Diligently, each morning, I would dedicate 10 minutes to the lighting of a candle in
 honour of my son, while reading the meditation and affirmation for that day. Not only was the book itself tremendously comforting because it gave me a daily dose of hope,but it also provided me with a sense of grabbing back some level of "normal" routine. Completing the 365 days of daily meditations, I slowly found my way out of the "Grief fog" while feeling a sense of connection with another bereaved mother who had been able to write about it, and, her writings helped shift me to a focus on learning how to go forward into the future living with such a deep loss. This book has the perfect amount of words to digest with ease in those early weeks and months of grieving, at a time when it is a challenge to focus on a shopping list let alone reading a book. Review by Kimberly Ryan
- The Secret Maps Project is a set of five films created to help those who work with the grieving as well as those dealing with loss themselves. These five parts include: The Secret Map of Surviving Loss, Good Grieving a Guide to Group Facilitation, An introduction to Group Healing and Grieving, Men Navigating Grief, and an Introduction to Bereavement Group.
- Waterloo Region Suicide Prevention Council WRSPC strives to maintain equal representations from professionals/organizations dealing directly with suicidal behavior, associated professionals (faith community, teachers) and the community (family, friends and individuals affected by suicide).
- Elizabeth, Where are you? by Kit Racette
 My daughter died in 2007 and my biggest question was where had she gone? In resolving this issue for myself I created a booklet of paintings done by my niece Ann Christine of my daughter's favourite places and eventually the solution that I found for myself. The paintings have a very soothing effect and with the words help the reader explore for themselves the favourite places of their loved one. I have given this book to many people who are in grief and they have found it very helpful. Many keep the book with them to read again when the grief wells back up. I offer this book for free for you to give away or to have in your waiting room - however you feel the book will be helpful. I do this in loving memory of my daughter and as a part of my own ongoing journey. Submitted by Kit Racette
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Upcoming Events
Date: January 12, 2016 to March 29, 2016
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Location: The Fleming Centre's Walking Track, 5020 Serena Drive, Beamsville, ON
Contact: Rachelle McGuire, Bereavement Support Clinician, McNally House 905-309-4013 ext. 33
Date: January 13, 2016 to March 30, 2016
Time: 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Location: 148 Central Avenue, Grimsby, ON
Contact: Rachelle McGuire, Bereavement Support Clinician, McNally House 905-309-4013 ext. 33
Date: January 19, 2016
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 pm
Location: The Hincks-Dellcrest Centre, Toronto
Instructors: Andrea Warnick, Colleen Mousseau, and Andrea Kwan
Host: Register here.
Details: This workshop will focus on how to support some of the harder-to-serve populations of grieving individuals and groups including youth and adolescents with learning disabilities and those with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. How to recognize complicated grief in children and youth will also be explored, as will an overview of the DSM-5’s classification of bereavement-related disorders and the implications for those who are grieving. Clinical examples, practical tools and resources will be shared through small and large group discussion with the aim of enhancing participant’s confidence in their ability to provide grief support in clinically challenging situations.
Date:Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Time:
- 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. (Eastern)
- Noon - 1:30 p.m. (Central)
- 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (Mountain)
- 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. (Pacific)
Cost: ADEC Members, w/CE: $35 Nonmembers, w/CE: $50 Register here.
Instructor: Dr. Darcy Harris, RN, RSW, PhD, FT
Host: Association for Death Education and Counselling
Details: Compassion is a capacity that allows us to be attentive to the experience of ourselves and others, and to sense what will deeply serve in many different situations. While there has been a great deal of emphasis on the concept of compassion fatigue, new research indicates that compassion is actually a self-sustaining response, even in situations of intense grief and trauma.
Date: Wednesday, January 20th, 2016 (the first and third Wednesday/month)
Time: 6:30 pm
Location:112 McLaughlin Road, Lindsay, ON
Host: Hospice Services Community Care city of Kawartha Lakes
Contact: 705.879.4123
Date: Thursday, January 28, 2016
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Darcy Harris
Location: Joanne & Peter Kenny Theatre in the Darryl J. King Student Life Centre at King’s University College, 266 Epworth Avenue, London ON
Details: For further details on this and other upcoming lectures in the Veritas Series please click the link above.
Date: January 29, 2016
Location: Victoria Park Armoury, 210 Kent Street West, Lindsay, ON
Cost: $50
Host: Kwartha Lakes
Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location:The Hincks-Dellcrest Centre, Toronto
Host: Register here.
Details: Play, creativity and the arts have a unique capacity to respond to human suffering, and offer experimental spaces for the exploration of ideas, feelings and questions around the experiences of death and grief. Looking at play, arts-based and other creative approaches to both psychoeducation and counseling/psychotherapy, this experiential, daylong workshop will support participants to build their toolkit and confidence in creative engagement with grieving children. We will review the theoretical foundations of use of play and creative/arts-based therapies with children and youth, illustrate a number of easy to use creative techniques in working with grieving children and youth, and allow participants to engage in safe, experiential activities to better understand the properties of creative interventions and build their toolkit. No art experience is required.
Date: February 28, 2016
Location: Hulse & English Funeral Home, St. Catharines
Presenter: Joshua Black
Host: Hulse & English Funeral Home
Date: Friday, April 8, 2016
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Toronto
Cost: 175 (+HST)
Instructor: Andrea Warnick
Details: Thanatology, the study of dying and death, is an emerging discipline that is quickly gaining momentum and recognition. The purpose of this workshop is to explore these movements alongside other contemporary issues involving grief, dying and death, such as natural burials and home funerals. Evidenced-based perspectives on dying, grief and bereavement will be introduced, with an emphasis on translating theory into practice in the personal and/or professional lives of participants. The workshop content is relevant to those with a general interest, and those working or volunteering in a related field such as hospice, social services, education, health care, and funeral services.
Date: April 23, 2016 to June 4, 2016
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Location: Hospice Niagara, 403 Ontario Street, St. Catharines, ON
Contact: Melissa Penner, Bereavement Advisor, Hospice Niagara 905-984-8766 ext. 233
Hike for Hospice
Date: May 2016 (usually 1st Sunday of the month)
Details: Check your local Hospice for date and details.
Date: Monday May 2 through to Friday May 6, 2016
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location:The Hincks-Dellcrest Centre, Toronto
Cost: $1,300
Instructors: Andrea Warnick RN, MA, Mariane Gocker MD, FRCP(C), Andrew Blake and
Lysa Toye Dip EXAT, MSW, RSW.
Details: Grief is a confusing and isolating experience for any person, old or young. Children’s grief, however, differs considerably from adult grief, resulting in the needs of grieving children often being overlooked or misunderstood. This can have a profound impact on the social and emotional development of a child. Caregivers, including the most skilled professionals, often feel helpless when supporting children through the death of someone close to them. For additional details regarding the Certificate Program in Children's Grief and Bereavement, please click on the link above.
Date: May 5, 2016
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Location: Heartland Forest, Niagara Falls, ON
Contact: Melissa Penner, Bereavement Advisor, Hospice Niagara 905-984-8766 ext. 233
Date: Friday, May 28, 2016 - Sunday, May 30, 2016
Location: Please contact host.
Cost: Please contact host.
Host: Kimberly Ryan
Dr. Alan Wolfelt, Public Presentation
Date: Monday October 24, 2016 (evening)
Time: Evening
Location: Caboto Club, 2175 Parent Avenue, Windsor
Host/Contact: Families First Funeral Home
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About BON
Our Mission
Bereavement Ontario Network is a network of individuals, groups, and organizations which, through the exchange of ideas, resources, and energy, is dedicated to helping the bereaved and the dying.
Bereavement Ontario Network (BON) is a diverse group of organizations and individuals across Ontario that work in the field of grief and bereavement as professionals and volunteers.
BON provides opportunities to access, in a reciprocal manner, the knowledge, experience, wisdom, and sensitivity of other members in Ontario. You can use BON to access this support for your clients and yourself.
Membership in the Bereavement Ontario Network is open to individuals, volunteer organizations, small business, and corporations. If your work brings you in contact with bereaved individuals, BON can help you to help them.
BON offers an annual conference, a directory of members, this newsletter, website, and the services of volunteer regional representatives. These representatives are available to answer questions and to refer you to available resources within your region.
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Stay Connected with BON
Bereavement Ontario Network
174 Oxford Street
Woodstock, ON N4S 6B1
Telephone 519-290-0219
Email: info@BereavementOntarioNetwork.ca
Website: www.BereavementOntarioNetwork.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BereavementOntarioNetwork
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