A New Workshop: Chronic Sorrow: The Recurring Grief of Family Caregivers ...

Sometimes you just need a good cry in the shower.

Anonymous

Hi Everyone!

I'm excited to announce the launch of a new Caregiver Wellness Community Workshop -  Chronic Sorrow: The Recurring Grief of Family Caregivers.  It will be held on Saturday May 30th  from 9-4pm (registration at 8:30) at the Granville Island Hotel in Vancouver, BC. The tuition is $210 (includes handouts, continental breakfast, light lunch, breaks and GST).  Brochures with registration forms are available at caregiverwellness@shaw.ca.

Family caregivers grieve many losses and they tend to grieve alone - in the shower, in the car, in the laundry room, on solitary walks. You grieve because your loved one's serious, permanent illness or injury has changed everything. And with each change comes loss and with each loss comes grief.

Studies, so far, suggest that up to 80% of family caregivers experience recurring episodes of variably intense grief continuing from the time of their loved one's diagnosis until that loved one's death. This grief does not necessarily diminish over time like grief after death. Rather, it can increase in intensity and frequency as time goes on. This caregiver grief is called Chronic Sorrow.  (Chronic Sorrow is also experienced by people who have a serious permanent medical condition, but in a slightly different way.)

Chronic Sorrow is a normal response to loss without a foreseeable end. It is not depression or complicated grief though it is sometimes misdiagnosed as such. It includes not only feelings of sadness but all the emotions of grief - anger, guilt, envy, anxiety, fear, loneliness and others. These grief emotions are triggered whenever something reminds you of the discrepancy between how things are and how they "could" or "should" have been had the illness or injury not occurred.

Chronic Sorrow  cannot be "cured" but you can learn to live with it more comfortably and that's what this workshop is all about. It had a "test run" with the family caregivers at the Children's Organ Transplant Society and the Starlight Foundation last spring to very positive reviews and now it's here for you - anyone who provides physical or emotional support to a person with a serious, permanent medical condition, physical or mental.

Space is limited so please register early to avoid disappointment. The registration deadline is May 15th.  

If you have questions, you can contact Jan at caregiverwellness@shaw.ca or (604) 297 0609.

Hope to see you there!



*** I'm sad and disappointed to say that all Caregiver Wellness workshops are postponed until at least the fall due to COVID-19. ***