Montgomery Hospice News

Montgomery Hospice Reaches Out

The Bereavement Care Program of Montgomery Hospice has partnered with another organization in Montgomery County - the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. Bereavement counselors and chaplains have been invited to provide grief workshops at the Department's Pre-Release and Reentry Program.

We have provided several workshops to enable the female offenders to think about their losses and how these have impacted the direction of their lives. Loss is something that none of us are strangers to. We all go through loss after loss in our lives. The loss of a pet, the loss of a familiar home and community when we move, the loss of physical abilities from illness or aging, the loss of a loved one by death, the loss of innocence as we grow up, and on and on throughout our lives. Those who are imprisoned have many losses which directly and indirectly lead to their incarcerations. Being imprisoned adds many more losses-loss of freedom, loss of choice, loss of family, loss of relationships and more.

Our hope is that Montgomery Hospice counselors and chaplains are able to bring more understanding of loss and grief to the residents of the Pre-Release and Reentry Services program, so that they have more choices about how and when they express their grief. Anger, sadness, frustration, acting out, short tempers, rage, being out of control are all part of grief. The more the female offenders, and we, understand this and can talk about and express these feelings in positive ways, the more we will live a fuller, fruitful life.

One of the workshops provided was on forgiveness and grief. This provided residents with some tools to help them in forgiving those who have hurt them. It also provided some tools for the residents to begin to forgive themselves for the hurts and pain they have caused others. If they, and all of us, are to heal through our grieving, we must learn to forgive others as well as forgive ourselves. This forgiveness allows all of us to move beyond the pain and hurt in our lives to find new meanings and understandings for ourselves.