Resources and Training


Impact Debriefing Toolkit for Managers

This Debriefing Tool Kit was designed to be a practical resource for managers and supervisors in workplaces where staff , volunteers, peers and community members are experiencing challenging loss events.

This Tool Kit offers a detailed structure for Impact Debriefing which can be a key component in supporting workers dealing with traumatic loss events.

The Tool Kit also:

  • provides descriptions of the various debriefing methods

  • offers some basic background information about grief and trauma and the impact on workers and workplaces

  • details some of the ways the current opioid related losses are distinct from the realities once experienced in the AIDS crisis

  • gives some practical tips - Do’s and Don’ts - when supporting loss-impacted workers 

  • outlines the detailed process for a 2-3 hour Impact Debriefing session.

The Tool Kit concludes with a list of related resources.


When Grief Comes to Work: Training for Front Line Workers

This 2-hour virtual training session was developed by Yvette Perreault from Good Grief Care Consultants for front-line staff working in addictions and mental health community-based agencies. This presentation was delivered during the time of COVID and acknowledges the additional stressors experienced by workers and clients through this time- expressed as “grieving the loss of living our lives”.

Get the training package accompanied by this video.

When Grief Comes to Work - Training Package.pdf

Mention Links:

How grief affects your brain and what to do about it.

How do you help a grieving friend?

Polyvagal Nervous System

Acupressure points - calming oneself

One minute meditation


The When Grief Comes to Work Handbook can also be found at CATIE.

When Grief Comes to Work:  Managing Grief and Loss in the Workplace (Handbook)

Why grief and the workplace?  I wrote this handbook in 2011 while I was Director of the AIDS Bereavement and Resilience Program of Ontario (www.abrpo.org). As a new Director, I had experienced the uncharted territory of working within a grief-saturated environment while attempting to build a new provincial program at the same time. Two “energies” if you will, perpetual contraction and expansion.  

Initially, I thought I hadn’t found the right training yet, so back in the early ‘90s, I completed a “Management in the not-for-profit sector” program at what was then Ryerson University.  There was virtually no mention of caring for a grieving staff and volunteers in their Human Resource course – something I needed as I worked in a death and loss saturated community.  When I went on to learn about grief and loss in a Thanatology program, there was no discussion about how to integrate a loss framework into organizational life.

This handbook was my response to begin bridging that gap in both knowledge and practice as a manager. I hope you find portions of it useful.

 

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