Learn how to understand and help with childhood grief

SILVER VALLEY — Hospice of North Idaho is hosting a seminar to help professionals who work with youth on how to deal with grief in children.

Kids in Grief Awareness Day is still a month away, but HNI is accepting registrations now for those who wish to attend this educational conference.

According to Kaylee Kron, a grief counselor for HNI, one in every five kids experience a death of a close family member (parent, sibling or grandparent) by age 18, that doesn’t include the number of kids who experience deaths of other extended family or friends.

“This is really important for our community,” Kron said. “We have roughly 4,000 kids in our area who have experienced grief in some form and we want to help give the community the tools to help those kids.”

This conference really was made possible by the success of HNI’s National Grief Awareness seminar last summer, which was very well received.

“We had such a good turn out for the National Grief Awareness seminar. I think we had over 160 people show up,” Kron said. “People were eager for the information and now we’re trying to bring the conversation and information to kids.”

Hospice of North Idaho is asking that all who wish to attend this free one-day training class, put on by North Idaho’s bereavement counselors and children’s mental health professionals, register as soon as possible.

Whether you are a teacher, a school counselor, a day care provider or a juvenile probation officer, this training will give you skills to serve the youth in your community.

Kids Grief Awareness Day is March 14, and the seminar will be at Hospice of North Idaho in Coeur d’Alene.

For more information, contact Kaylee Kron, LMSW GC-C, bereavement coordinator, at 208-772-7994 or email at kronk@honi.org.

Free tickets are available at kids-in-grief-training-for-helping-professionals.eventbrite.com.