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September 2015 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
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MAKERS
Hospice of the Bluegrass
Provides Grief Resources for
Fayette Co. Public Schools
(Lexington, KY) – As
children prepare to go
back to school, Hospice
of the Bluegrass is providing grief training and
tools to approximately 65
school personnel from
50 Fayette County Public
Schools (FCPS). The
Grief Support Project
helps school personnel
learn to support children
as they navigate grief and
loss following the death of a loved one, teacher, coach or peer.
“Grief and loss are difficult emotions to recognize and resolve at any
age,” said Rachel Brashear, LCSW, ACHP-SW, from Hospice of the
Bluegrass. “When children are involved, it can be more complicated as
they do not often understand their feelings or how to process the loss.”
Hospice was able to create a toolkit for each school called, Helping
Grieving Students: Resources for School Personnel, and conduct training thanks to a generous grant from the Thomson R. Bryant, Jr. and
Betty R. Bryant Fund at Blue Grass Community Foundation.
Velva Reed-Barker, Coordinator of Social Work, Guidance and
FRYSC; and Crisis Team Coordinator for FCPS, participated in a recent
training. “There are 40,000 students in the Fayette County School
District; 1 in 20 of those will lose a parent,” said Reed-Barker. “Many
more will be touched with some sort of death or loss such as divorce,
death of a friend, death of a pet, loss of family system, loss of sibling,
economic hardships, relocation and trauma. We want to have the
resources to help the children move forward. This toolkit gives us many
resources to do that successfully.”
Dann Bates, Crawford Middle School Social Worker and member of
the Crisis Response Team, also received training. “It’s important to learn
how to work with kids who are grieving,” said Bates. “Everyone grieves
differently. This toolkit gives us resources to come alongside grieving
children and help them get back on track. The school system is often
the first to identify issues with children and families. We spend 40 plus
hours a week with the children and they will often open up to us before
they do to someone else. Many children and parents will be helped
through this toolkit.”
Reed-Barker added, “We appreciate our partnership with Hospice
of the Bluegrass because of the expertise and extra layer of support
they provide. Hospice also eliminates the economic barrier to services
because they provide classes and other support free of charge.”
Stress Hormones Reduce
Heroin Cravings
The stress hormone cortisol can reduce
heroin’s addictive cravings, say researchers at
the University of Basel in Switzerland. Previous
studies have found cortisol diminishes the
ability to retrieve memories. This could be used
to relieve symptoms of anxiety by inhibiting the
patient’s ability to recall anxious episodes, so the
researchers hypothesized cortisol could effect an
addiction-related memory and thus decrease the
craving for the addictive substance. In patients
undergoing treatment for heroin addiction,
cravings were decreased by an average of 25
percent in those with dependence on a relatively
low dose of heroin. The cortisol did not have
much affect on the highly dependent patients.
The researchers want to explore if cortisol can
help the addictive cravings for nicotine, alcohol
and gambling.
Trilogy Health Services Breaks
Ground on New Lexington
Community
THE WILLOWS AT FRITZ FARM EXPECTED TO OPEN IN FALL 2016
Trilogy Health Services is holding a groundbreaking ceremony on
Thursday, September 10 at 10:00 a.m. on the site of their new health
campus, The Willows at Fritz Farm. The site is located on the corner of
Nicholasville Road and Man O’War Blvd. Members of the media and
community are invited to attend this event which will feature comments
from the Trilogy Health Services team, as well as statements from local
officials.
Trilogy Health Services currently operates 96 senior living communities throughout Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan, including The
Willows at Hamburg and The Willows at Citation in Lexington. For
more information about our new health campus, please call
866-549-9178.