National Bereavement Day invites all Canadians to reflect on the importance of relationships past and present, to think about those who have passed from our lives, and to help advocate for supports at the provincial and national levels for grieving Canadians. What can you do to help yourself and others? [...]
No one can deny that as 2020 began to unfold, most of our worlds were radically changed. No need to review the details of the dramatic changes flowing from this pandemic; we are all very aware of how our lives have been affected. Previously, we have talked about the levels of [...]
We are experiencing grief right now—global grief. The words pandemic, coronavirus, COVID-19 and isolation are causing havoc on our world and changing life as we know it… TEMPORARILY! This is definitely a time of uncertainty and it is indeed frightening. That we cannot change. So what CAN we do?? 1. Acknowledge [...]
The daily coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic reminds us all to make some very important emergency plans to care for those at greater risk for complications from the virus and to create a household emergency plan and contact list. Now that we are doing our best to “flatten the curve” and [...]
Holidays like Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Diwali, Christmas (not to mention birthdays and anniversaries) can be very tough for those who have experienced loss. For people in grief, family gatherings and celebrations can highlight the absence of a special person. With some thought and planning, it is possible to get through [...]
Written by Tammy Bruno, RN, BN, MN student I am a home care nurse manager from the Samson Cree Nation, located in Maskwacis Alberta (pronounced Musk-wah-chees), on Treaty 6 territory. I am a single mother of three boys and I have returned to graduate school to complete the Nurse Practitioner [...]
On an extremely cold Saturday afternoon in early February 2019, a group of people came together for AHPCA’s first-ever Death Cafe. This is the story of how we got there and what happened. In late summer 2018, Laura Walsh approached AHPCA, wondering if we would like to join forces to [...]
Grief is a funny thing. Although you can anticipate grief at times, you never really know when a wave of grief will hit. The April 6, 2018 Humboldt Saskatchewan bus/truck collision has no doubt caused a great deal of grief, and not just for those who lost a loved one [...]
The memory of the scent of the disinfectant squirt on my hands I used prior to entering my client’s hospice room still permeates my nostrils weeks later. If that is what lingers for me, what do the dying smell on their last few days? Our sense of smell is linked [...]
