Lakeport >> Michy Brown, Bereavement Counselor with Hospice Services of Lake County, was honored at the Jan. 14 meeting of the Lakeport Unified School District for her work with students who have experienced a death in the family.
The mission of Hospice Services is to “support and comfort people by providing the highest quality medical, emotional, social, and spiritual care” in partnership with the culturally diverse communities it operates in. One of the ways they do that is through the Community Bereavement Program.
In 2015 Hospice hosted bereavement camps for 23 families, including 26 children, and supported individuals who have lost loved ones with over 1,700 grief counseling sessions through bereavement groups and individual therapy. Counseling was provided at 16 Lake County schools for 253 children who have experienced a death in their family.
The Bereavement program is led by Linda Laing, LMFT, Director of Bereavement Services, and includes Brown, Kathleen Bradley and a group of 37 volunteers, providing 1814 hours annually.
In November 2015 the Memorial Garden at the Bereavement Center on Parallel Drive was opened in a candlelight ceremony where families and friends reflected and remembered their loved ones. The Memorial Garden was a project of Lakeport Rotary.
Bereavement and Grief services are required to be offered by Medicare certified hospice agencies, however many hospice agencies provide the bare minimum to comply with the requirement. As you can see, this is not the case with the Community Bereavement Program at Hospice Services of Lake County.
Although the services are required, they are not funded. The services that Hospice provides are thanks to the donations and sales at the three Thrift Stores (Lakeport, Clearlake, Middletown), and by a grant from the Redbud Healthcare District.
