Responding and Recovering from a Death in the School Community
Speaker: Dr. Scott Poland
This presentation will help international school personnel, and especially counselors develop and enhance their ability to respond to a death of a student, staff member or parent in the school community. All schools have to be ready to respond to the death of a member of the school community. Caplan’s level of crisis intervention which include primary, secondary and tertiary intervention will be outlined. The importance of verification of the death as well as the cause of the death will be emphasized along with importance of cultural competency in crisis intervention. Five questions to help schools estimate the potential traumatic impact of the death will be shared. Practical examples of school wide intervention as well as classroom interventions will be shared.
The role of parents in assisting their children to deal with grief and loss will be emphasized. All adults both at home and school need to know the typical reactions that children have to a traumatic event and how to support children in the aftermath of a death of a friend, teacher or relative. Developmental issues for children and their understanding of death will also be shared.
In addition, strategies will be discussed to help build resiliency for students and the school staff will be emphasized. The complicated issue of memorialization and what is appropriate at school will be outlined. It is especially challenging for schools to respond to the suicide of a member of the school community and best practices for suicide postvention will be discussed and references shared that schools can utilize.
To verify the time zone for our webinar on August 23rd (12:00am-13:00pm GMT – city of reference is Reykjavik), click here.
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