St. Francis is local host for national teleconference on kids’ grief

INDIANAPOLIS – The St. Francis Palliative Medicine program will be the local host of a national teleconference focused on ways to help youngsters cope with grief and loss.

The Hospice Foundation of America’s 15th annual Living With Grief® Children and Adolescents is a live satellite and Webcast sponsored by the Foundation for End-of-Life Care. The conference’s emphasis is on the experience of grieving children and adolescents and the ways parents, hospice and other medical professionals, social workers, counselors, clergy and funeral directors can support them.

The program will be moderated by Frank Sesno, professor of media and public affairs at the George Washington University and a special correspondent with CNN.

Locally, the conference will be from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 16. It will be broadcast at the St. Francis Hospital auditorium, 1600 Albany St., Beech Grove.

The program is free and the book, “Living With Grief: Children and Adolescents,” will be available for sale to conference participants.

To register or learn more about the conference, call 317-783-8930.

More information about the St. Francis Palliative Medicine program is at www.stfrancishospitals.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=322.

St. Francis Hospice also will offer Spring Caterpillar Kids – a bereavement program for children ages 5-12 – beginning March 12. The workshops, which are free, are from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. and run three consecutive Wednesdays with a one-week break, then resume for three additional sessions.

To register or for more information about Caterpillar Kids, call Roberta White at 317-865-2092 or toll-free at 800-390-9915.