An Athens Hospital is providing additional support for those who may need it.
St. Mary’s Health Care System is now offering its Life After Loss bereavement and grief support group. The class is for any adult who is grieving the loss of a loved one.
The group is designed to help those who are experiencing the loss of a loved one work through their experience, express their feelings, and find support among others facing a similar loss.
People can attend as many sessions as they wish and no registration is required. At each meeting, facilitator Rev. Jessica Chicken will help pose questions and guide discussion of healthy and meaningful ways to cope with grief.
“The group is to meet the needs of the people who are attending and it’s available for as long as they need it,” according to Mark Ralston, Public Relations Manager with St. Mary’s.
Rev. Chicken is a critical care and palliative care chaplain with St. Mary's who holds master's degrees in divinity and thanatology, a field focused specifically on grief and loss.
Mark Ralston is the Public Relations Manager with the facility. He says this group fills a need in the community.
“Our chaplain offered a shorter version of this earlier in the fall and it was so well-received that she realized that she really needed to make it a full-time support group,” according to Ralston. “As a Catholic hospital, St. Mary’s is really devoted to our mission of serving the whole person, not just the physical person, and bereavement support is a part of that.”
Life After Loss meets the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Thursdays of the month from 7pm to 8 pm. No registration is needed. For information, please call 706.389.3426.
