We are here to offer you respite and assistance in learning how to live after your loved one has died. Our goals are:

• to educate families about the grief process and all its complexities as it applies to the death of a child at any age and from any cause. 

• to aid and support those who are suffering such a loss, regardless of race, creed or financial situation. 

• to provide monthly meetings with sharing groups and occasional informative programs. 

• to provide a library at each meeting place where members may borrow books with up-to-date information about the grief process. 

• to supply the telephone numbers of other bereaved parents, siblings and grandparents who are able to offer support to other more newly bereaved families. 

• to inform and educate members of the helping profession who interact with bereaved parents as to the nature and duration of parent, sibling and grandparent bereavement.

 

Our members are at all stages of recovery;  some have deep religious faith, others have lost their faith, while still others are adrift.

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Attendance at our meetings brings together newly bereaved parents with those who are farther along in their grief and have worked through many of their grief-related issues.

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Although most parents feel isolated in the beginning, the group helps them to know they haven't been singled out for this unspeakable hurt.  The most important thing our meetings have to offer are members who listen with true empathy and genuinely care about the uniqueness of  each child who has died and the events that surround that death; they can relate to the following aftermath which includes heartache, bitterness, isolation  and disappointment over anticipated support that does not materialize.  We reassure each other that there is no reason to hurry our grief along, as many non-bereaved suggest. There is no timetable for grief.

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MHBPUS has no religious affiliations; we encourage members to speak freely and openly about what helps or hinders in coping with their grief, with respect and consideration for those who may disagree.  We understand that every bereaved parent, sibling and grandparent has individual needs and rights; we never suggest that there is a correct way to grieve or that there is a preferred solution to the emotional and spiritual dilemmas raised by the death of our children, sibling or grandchildren.

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Everyone deserves an opportunity to be heard.  No one is compelled to speak.  All have a responsibility to listen.  We treat what is said at our meetings as confidential and what we learn about each other is privileged information.

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