The team at St. Elizabeth Healthcare has an amazing hospice team that not only cares for those who need it at the end of life, but also the families who need support when they lose a loved one.
This summer, part of that was helping to fund a special day camp that just finished a two-week run.
There’s a saying that sometimes if you fall off the horse, you just have to get back on again. The Equine Grief Camp, a partnership between Beth Long’s New Day at Meadowview Farm in Mount Zion and the St. Elizabeth Hospice Team, provides the opportunity to get back on the horse figuratively and literally.
The goal is to help kids manage grief in a healthy way.
“Because one of the things we know is that grief is a process that turns into anger and we don’t want to have angry kids around,” Gail Rizzo, child and family counselor for St. Elizabeth Hospice, told Liz Bonis with Local 12. “They learn how to unconditionally connect with something they feel is not judging them.”
The kids get to ride horses and they get to meet other kids who have experienced grief and know what they are going through as well. That encourages them to look forward to the future, learn specific skills and learn to take a chance to step out of their comfort zone.
Click here to watch the segment on Local 12.
