I was excited on Friday morning when I received some information from a reader of Funeral Director Daily.  You see, I started Funeral Director Daily a few years ago with the idea that it could be a network for those working in the death care profession to be able to access thoughts, ideas, and products that could help our care of our living clientele by finding out things we didn’t know about.

Most of my background is in management and operations so at times Funeral Director Daily is somewhat “business and finance” heavy.  Although I’ve tried to learn more about technology and other facets of funeral home operations to pass items from those segments on to readers also.

Last Friday morning Funeral Director Daily published this article that dealt with “bereavement” and, in specific, talked about one funeral director’s quest to get “Bereavement” and its effects taught in public schools in Great Britain.  The article pointed out that the movement has grown so far that in a couple of weeks Great Britain’s Parliament is going to discuss the subject.

Well, after that article went out one reader sent me an e-mail about efforts in America for the public to gain more knowledge about the issues and dynamics of childrens’ grief through the National Alliance for Grieving Children (NAGC).  Specifically, he mentioned to me the NAGC’s child bereavement Public Service Announcement (PSA) series.  You can access that series here.

According to the reader, the NAGC launched its campaign last December — that’s less than one year ago.  The same reader told me that the campaign has generated 41,978 television airings which were viewed by over 146 million people.  That puts the campaign at a estimated ad value (if paid for) of over $8.7 million.  That’s a lot of value and those people who had any part in the success should be thanked by all death care professionals for bringing these grief issues among our nation’s children to light.

You can access the National Alliance for Children’s Grief here.

A New Product for Children’s Grief —  That same reader enlightened me to a product called “Pollen”.  According to their website, which you can access here, “(Pollen) provides the tools caregivers need to help children work through their trauma”.

According to that website, Pollen was started by thanatologist and grief expert Michaelene Dowers.  Dowers is also a ten-year veteran funeral director and her resume indicates that she would be well-versed to have knowledge in grief endeavors.

As a funeral director I would suggest taking a look at the website of Pollen to see if there is some way that they can help you when you deal with those who may suffer from the emotions of grief.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take — As I opened with in this article, I enjoy getting more information on the subjects that can help funeral directors, funeral homes, and cemeteries care for their clientele.  And, Funeral Director Daily has now became a trusted resource for those in our profession who are looking for products and ideas to make their service to their clients better.

If you have an idea or something that you would like to share I would love to hear from you.  To help you do so there is a “Contact Us” link at the very bottom of every page of Funeral Director Daily’s computer view and at the bottom of all material on Funeral Director Daily’s mobile viewings.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

I don’t know if this ever happens to you, but every so often I seem to get hit from all sides with a certain subject matter.  It’s usually something that I have not thought of for awhile but then, all of a sudden, seem to have the subject come up over and over in a short period of time.

In the last couple of weeks it’s been that way for me on the subject of bereavement, and more specifically, how we as funeral directors help those with loss move through bereavement.

It started for me with All Saint’s Day on November 1.  That’s a day in the Chrisitian church where we celebrate those who have died before us.  At my church sanctuary we have candles and members are encouraged to light the candles in honor and in remembrance of those loved ones we have lost through death.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Then on Wednesday of that week my Men’s Bible study, that follows the topics of Sunday services, studied the Biblical book of Ruth and its lessons of loss, determination, and hope following loss.  It’s a short story of loss, bereavement, hope, and redemption that’s good for the soul.

Finally, I learned from a mass email from my friend, John Adams, former President of the National Association of Funeral Directors in Great Britain, that his “Parliamentary petition for all school age children to be taught about death, dying and bereavement in schools” in Great Britain will be further debated by Parliament on Monday, December 2.

I met John Adams and another funeral director from the U.K., Adam Ginder, at the NFDA Convention in Baltimore two years ago.  John told me at that time of his story and his desire to have children learn more about death, dying, and bereavement.  As John is quoted in this opinion article from Child Bereavement UK promoting Bereavement Education in schools,  “For a child, their immediate family is their life; I feel passionately that we need to involve children in funerals and the grieving process. We may want to protect children from sadness and loss but we cannot avoid it – it’s part of living.”

I once again had the opportunity to see Adam Ginder at the NFDA Convention in New Orleans less than a month ago.  I asked about John and Adam let me know that John was continuing his quest to have bereavement education to be taught in the equivilent of our elementary schools. . . . I was then later excited to see that Parliament is moving forward with the possibility of that happening.

I’ve also became aware of the Good Grief Trust from the United Kingdom.  It is an organization that “is run by the bereaved for the bereaved”.  John Adams serves as one of their ambassadors.

Related Article — John Adams meets King Charles and tells him of his campaign for bereavement awareness.

Funeral Director Daily take:  It’s interesting that a country will take a day of their lawmakers’ time to debate the issue of teaching the essence of bereavement and loss to its young people.  I’m guessing that there are a lot of other issues that many citizens would prefer to be discussed and it’s a testament to John Adams and his advocacy for this important debate getting to this point.

As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, sometimes you just get broadsided by one issue.  However, when that happens it does make one wonder about the subject  — in this case, bereavement and how funeral directors help clientele move forward from grief.

It has also made me think that, yes, owning or operating a funeral home is business.  However, it should not be taken lightly that how we help clientele in their journey to acceptance and moving forward from loss might make a big difference on how we are seen as “the funeral home of choice” to consumers.

Sometimes it just takes being hit from all sides with an issue to help one remember why that issue is so important and give us pause to ask ourselves how we are helping our clientele with that area of our business.

It is certainly important to make sure that we have positive cash-flow from our business activities but it may be even more important to make sure that our services are helping our survivor clientele move forward into a future with hope.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”