Walking Alongside Children and Families in Hospice

Walking Alongside Children and Families in Hospice

Date: July 10, 2025

Venue/City: Ann Arbor, MI

Audience: Social Workers, Child Life Specialists, Grief Support Staff, Grief Counselors

It was a true honor for us to lead the all-day training session Walking Alongside Children & Families in Hospice in Ann Arbor, where a compassionate and curious group came together to explore what it really means to support children through the complexities of hospice care.

Throughout the day, we explored how hospice contexts differ from other grief experiences—recognizing that terms like best practice and hospice hold different meanings depending on personal, cultural, and systemic contexts. We looked at how children grieve across developmental stages, and importantly, how their responses are shaped not just by age, but by experience, relationship, and environment.

We integrated creative modalities like therapeutic art, storytelling, and symbolic play—tools that can help children process grief in ways that feel safe, expressive, and even empowering. One participant shared:

"Rebecca provided thoughtful therapeutic art projects for a variety of developmental levels that utilize accessible materials making them easy to implement. This was highly appreciated!"

Even those initially hesitant to engage in arts-based work found meaning in it:

"I don’t care for arts and crafts and yet my experience today was lovely and I felt inspired to use the art projects that I was taught."

We also explored how storytelling can serve as a tool not only for children, but for us as caregivers—supporting reflection, emotional processing, and sustainability in this work. Conversations about culturally responsive care and historical context were woven throughout, helping everyone think more intentionally about respectful inclusion in end-of-life settings.

It was a rich day of laughter, learning, connection, and even singing! We are grateful to all who showed up so fully—and we continue to look forward to walking alongside fellow helpers in the future!