TIPS TO TAKE ACTION AFTER THE WEBCAST 

1. If providing direct support, think about varied ways to capture important activities and meaningful relationships: stories, photos, words, music, and art. These can serve as a reminder for individuals and help reduce secondary loss when new paid supports are introduced in someone's life.

2. If you are supporting someone who has experienced a recent loss, structure their environment to make it feel comforting, calm and predictable. Take into account sensory considerations, such as a weighted blanket, to assist with self-regulation. 

3. Engage in conversations about loss with those you support, and validate their feelings of loss when routines, staff support, or planned activities change or must be missed.   

4. Include people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in culturally appropriate bereavement or mourning rituals, like funerals, when someone close to them passes away. 

LEARN  

Real Xchange Module: Navigating Grief, Loss & Bereavement in the Developmental Services Sector
Developed with Kate Awen from All About Inclusion, this 4-part module explores valuable insights, practical tools and resources. 

All About Inclusion Visual and Communication Resources for Grief and Mourning 
To support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities through loss

All About Inclusion: Community - Learning - Advocacy
Tools and training resources designed to support someone with a disability.   

Graphic Resource of Co-Regulation by educator Kristin Wiens 

This graphic, by educator Kristin Wiens, is a visual metaphor for co-regulation, which is a core Self-Regulation strategy. 
 

READ

Book: Helping People with Developmental Disabilities Mourn: Practical Rituals for Caregivers  
By Marc A. Markell, PhD
Focused on creating mourning rituals, this book offers techniques to help explain death and dying. With practical tools to use while explaining death and dying.