Specialized Training for Counselors Who Offer Grief Counseling to their Clients

The death of a loved one can be an extremely distressing situation. Whether the person is a spouse, child or parent, when a death occurs there can be a range of emotional and physical responses. While sadness and grief is normal as a reaction for most people, for others, the degree of distress and grief may be so intense that grief counseling may become necessary.

What is Grief Counseling?

Whenever a person experiences loss of any form his or her body responds to the stress physically and emotionally. Age, culture and even gender may contribute to the intensity of emotions and how a person responds to the grief. It has been suggested that a person will typically pass through a number of stages of grief that range from denial to acceptance of the loss. Along the way, they may also experience anger, depression and bargaining as a means of dealing with their grief. Grief counseling assists an individual in passing through these stages.

Who Provides Counseling Services?

Bereavement counseling is sometimes offered to clients of funeral services or through hospice services for the families of people who have lost a loved one. People who go through other types of loss (for example amputation of a limb, chronic illness or divorce) experience the same stages of grief that someone who has lost a family. Often the need for referral is recognized by a general practitioner who can provide their patient with a referral to a psychologist or other counselor.

Specialized Counseling Services

Most counselors learn how to deal with grief counseling as part of their basic training. However, because of the variety of the ages and backgrounds of their clients, they may need to develop specialty skills to assist clients with special needs. Counselors may choose to provide specialized support to their younger clients and help them deal with child or adolescent grief. Specialized courses for counselors are provided online or through classes taken in a traditional classroom.

Resolving Grief and Promoting Self Help

Counselors train to assist people deal with their own problems by supporting them to make decisions and to move on with their lives. Opportunities to develop specialized skills will help a counselor provide excellent grief counseling and other services to their clients and client families. If you’d like to make a career out of helping people overcome their grief, then look into one of the professional training courses that can be found online.

Job Security as a Health Care Professional

When you hear the words health care professionals you may just think of physicians or registered nurses. Not only are the positions available in health care much more diverse, but so are the types of treatments and care that are available. Over half of the fastest growing occupations are related to the health care industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Baby Boomers

Baby boomers are getting older every day. They estimate that there are about 75 million Americans that were born in the years known as the baby boom. If many of the people that were born from 1945 – 1964 are getting older then they are going to need more access to health care benefits in the near future, and we’ll need more professionals to treat them.

Longer Life Expectancy

People are living longer and longer. Some reports estimate that we are living on average 10 years longer than previous generations. If this is true, that is a possible 10 more years that we may need health care as well. Of course the overall goal is to lead a healthy life, but we all need help from time to time, especially the older we get. Let’s face the facts, the older we are the more time we have for things to go wrong.

Technology

Technology is advancing rapidly, for better or for worse. With some technology we can alleviate what was causing our illness all together, but this not always the case. Sometimes technology just allows us to live longer with it. Either way, technology has been proven to improve the quality of life for many people and can help them live longer as well.

Another way technology is impacting health care is through paperless billing and records. With computers being used to store and transfer so much patient data we will need people to manage and secure it as well.

Job Security in Health Care

As you see, there are many reasons why the health care industry is growing and why it is a great option for people looking for work. Whether you are looking to change careers or are just out of school you can get many health career related jobs with only an associate’s degree. Becoming a part of a health care professional team can not only give you the job security you have been searching for but also the knowledge that you are helping people improve their lives and live longer.

Achieving the Work, Study and Family Balance

Fewer and fewer people can afford to leave their employment to enter fulltime continuing education. The current financial crisis and increasing unemployment levels throughout the world has left many feeling increasingly insecure. The flexibility of online training enables professionals to continue their employment while developing new skills and certifications to enable their career to progress and to help them achieve financial stability.

Health Care Professionals and Continuing Education

The Health Care Industry is constantly undergoing change as new technology is developed and new knowledge is learned. Healthcare providers have embraced online education as a means of adding new knowledge to their work practices and continuous improvement of their skill base. Some have taken the opportunity to diversify into other areas of practice, using the skills and knowledge they already have and adding new knowledge to prepare for a completely different career pathway.

Legal Nurse Consulting

Legal Nurse Consultants (LNC) are one group of nurses who embraced the benefits of continuing education and transferred their medical skills into the legal profession.

They use the specialized medical training they have received to provide essential under pinning knowledge to legal cases involving medical related situations. The Legal Nurse Consultant provides essential support to the attorney in cases of litigation, by acting as an expert witness.

Continuing Education and Legal Nurse Consultants

Nurses who choose to add a Legal Nurse Consultant qualification to their credentials undertake study which they can do online through a variety of courses offered by higher education facilities. Course options vary from basic to more advanced training, but for those studying online, a major benefit is the ability to continue working while studying.

Opportunities for Employment

Legal Nurse Consultants are just one of many subject choices that nurses and other healthcare professionals can study online to effect a career pathway change. Nurses may study to become Lactation Consultants, Nurse Practitioners or other careers with courses that extend their current qualifications. Other allied healthcare workers may continue to increases their education to enable them to move into higher responsibility and therefore higher paid positions.

Cost of Continuing Online Education

The cost of continuing online education is usually competitive with more the more conventional studies offered on location in a university. Students are usually able to self pace within a set study period. This may enable them to achieve a work-study-life balance that may elude other full time students

Healthcare Professionals And The Need For Continuing Education

As a professional in health care you have already proved your capability and will have already achieved the basic qualification or certification required for your job. But if you are considered an expert in your field, that usually carries with it an assumption that you follow the most modern, legal and certified practices available. And to do that, it’s essential that you stay trained in the latest developments in the industry. That can be difficult sometimes if you work a full week, and possibly have to care for a family, but it is possible with all of the great schools and organizations that will work around your schedule to help get you trained. If you’re a healthcare professional, let’s look at why you should think about updating your credentials, and how to go about it.

Why Continue Your Education?

Your professional organization will require its members to be updated in their qualifications and skills so that they’ll be able to represent the profession well. It may be that your particular profession is governed by a practitioner’s license or certification that requires periodical renewal. Quite simply these are mandatory in order to continue practicing and the renewal will require that you have current knowledge.

In all sectors, there are continuous movements with changing standards, developments, technological advancements and amendments to new governing laws. A professional must keep abreast of the changes and adapt to them as required. This is crucial to the health and medical field because of the sensitivity of the work. Your professional association will keep you up to date with changes and their relevance to you. Or you might want to consider your continuing education because you want to specialize in one area that is related to your field or you may be looking to add additional skills to increase your employability and earning potential.

How To Continue Your Education

Your professional association will provide invaluable advice for what you have to do to be compliant with any required changes, and also will provide the resources you need to advance your skills. Most associations also run regular update courses, refreshers, conferences and seminars. If the on-site academic route is not your preferred choice then you can consider on the job training, part-time or evening courses or even home-based learning. If you want to learn a new skill the method you choose will be dependent on your individual circumstances and what facilities are available to you.

Beyond the Five Stages of Grief: Helping Professionals and Bereavement Counseling

One of the most important functions that a health professionals can provide is counseling and compassion in times of loss. In addition to offering the spiritual comfort that clergy may offer, counselors, social workers, psychologists, physicians, nurses, and other helping professionals can also help a grieving individual or family if they have a deeper understanding of the bereavement process.

While the ground-breaking book on stages of grief by Elisabeth-Kubler Ross was an important step forward, the research into the grieving and healing process continues to add to our appreciation for both the similarities and differences in the stages across different persons.

As most know, Kubler-Ross began by defining the five stages of grief for those with terminal illnesses, and then generalized it to all important losses, including death and even loss of a job.

(A recent pundit suggests that even political losses can invoke the grieving process.)

The stages are follows:

1. Denial, in which the person refuses to believe what is happening

2. Anger, which the person recognizes the loss or impending loss and now feels rage and envy.

3. Bargaining, in which the person hopes to negotiate a deal, e.g., postponement of the loss in return for good behavior

4. Depression, which involves understanding the inevitable and loses hope.

5. Acceptance, in which the person comes to terms with the inevitable and becomes more present

It is important to know that Kubler-Ross did not say that these stages were an immutable road that all grieving persons travel down. She does day, though, that individuals will experience at least two. The order and duration varies from person to person, she explained, though many are unaware of that caveat.

Also, simply being aware of the stages does not provide the healer with the perspective or tools for responding to each of them. In order to provide the most meaningful kind of help at times of death or other losses, a well-grounded training is essential.

Courses in thanatology and grief counseling (also known as bereavement counseling) can add immeasurably to the understanding and competence of ministers, counselors, hospice workers, and others who find themselves in frequent contact with those who are suffering from terminal illnesses, impending death, death of loved ones, and other significant losses.

Finances Top List of Stressors in US

What are the top life stressors these days in the United States?

Health care professionals will want to see the results of the new survey from a leading non-profit mental health organization, Mental Health America (formerly known as the National Mental Health Association). Whether you are a registered nurse, a licensed social worker, a psychologist, a pastor, or even a fitness consultant, these data provide a glimpse of stress today.

As the MHA president, David L. Shern observes, “The majority of Americans struggles to find balance in the face of a multitude of challenges in our busy society.

“How they choose to cope – whether it is distracting activities, exercise, talking through their troubles or more harmful measures of smoking and doing drugs – affects their mental health. If inappropriately or inadequately addressed, chronic stress and other mental health problems jeopardize the health and well-being of Americans and of the nation as a whole,” he added

The Top Three Stressors: Finances, Health, and Jobs

In general, despite rating their mental health and well-being as excellent or very good, over half of Americans report feeling stress from financial, employment, and health issues on a daily basis.

1. Finances.

Finances, not surprisingly these days, come out on top, stressing 48 percent of Americans overall. However across demographic groups, a different picture emerges. Over 55 percent of African Americans and Native Americans report feeling stressed by finances compared to 49 percent of Latinos, 47 percent of non-Hispanic Whites, and 42 percent of Asians.

2. Health.

For 34 percent, health issues were listed as significant stressors overall and came in second.

3. Employment

Employment issues, including on-the-job stress and unemployment stress, were named as a major stress by 32 percent of Americans.

More Stress Findings

Interestingly, parents turn out to be the group reporting the most stress. Almost 40 percent experience stress from three or more sources, including family relationships, work, and finances.

The demographic groups overall reported the following degree of stress: Native Americans, 37 percent, and African Americans, 38 percent, Latinos, 34 percent, Asians, 34 percent, and non-Hispanic Whites, 30 percent.

The survey found that college graduates felt less stress overall and were less likely to consider financial issues stressful.

Finally, a high proportion (72 percent) of those suffering from mental illnesses were especially likely to report stress in their close relationships. T percent) and health stress (48 percent).hey also reported work stress (

. People with mental illness also feel stressed by employment, 47 percent, and health, 48 percent.

Given the high percentages of Americans who experience stress, professional health care providers can really benefit from the current training in stress management. Check out your local options as well as distance education courses. You may discover that you can start using the coping principles on yourself as the holidays arrive!

Social Work Case Management: Training for Optimal Outcomes

In social work, case management can involve a wide variety of activities in practice, yet overall is defined by its aim of assessing client needs, and as appropriate, arranging, coordinating, monitoring, evaluating, and advocating for services to meet those identified complex needs. To successfully fulfill the goal of providing quality services effectively to “optimize” the client’s life, a social worker needs to keep apprised of the developments in best practices in case management practices through continuing professional development. This may be through online courses specifically developed for health care professionals.

Unlike case management in other professions, a social work case manager focuses both on the client as a whole person as well as on the encompassing social system. Thus the provided services may be provided through a single agency or be diffused across several organizations. The National Association of Social Workers thus describes social work case management as both “micro and macro in nature.” To work at both those levels requires a sophistication particular to the field.

The complexity of the social worker’s professional obligation necessitates thus both a broad knowledge of the service systems as well as a detailed knowledge of individual and family functioning. Being able to create and maintain a therapeutic relationship with clients while connecting them with needed resources requires training, supervision, practice, and continual professional development.

Particularly useful in developing expertise for the licensed social worker are courses in continuing education that offer a thorough grounding in the principles and practices of case management. A thorough program will also include coverage of concepts and theories, with an eye to the legal and ethical issues involved, as well as the definition and measurement of outcomes.

The National Association of Social Workers provides a clear statement of goals that should be at the forefront of case management training for social workers. In striving to create an optimal outcome for the client and the client’s family, the goals, as stated by the NSWA include enhancing client coping capacities, facilitating the delivery of resources, and contributing to continued development of social policy.

As noted by the NSWA, social workers at times fulfills any of a variety of roles, including “advocate, broker, diagnostician, planner, community organizer, evaluator, consultant, and therapist.“ Dedicated social workers find themselves faced with highly complex tasks for which the utmost preparation is needed. Training and indeed certification in case management can prove a valuable support to a unique profession that provides highly valuable services to some of society’s most marginalized individuals.