Michy B, Bereavement Counselor with School Counselors
Hospice Services of Lake County’s mission is “We support and comfort people by providing the highest quality medical, emotional, social, and spiritual care in partnership with our culturally diverse communities.” One of the ways we do that, is through our Community Bereavement Program.
Michy Brown, Bereavement Counselor was honored at the January 14th meeting of the Lakeport Unified School District for her work with students who have experienced a death in the family.
In 2015 we hosted bereavement camps for 23 families including 26 children, and supported individuals who have lost loved ones with over 1,700 grief counseling sessions through bereavement groups and individual therapy. Counseling was provided at 16 Lake County schools for 253 children who have experienced a death in their family.
Our Bereavement program is led by Linda Laing, LMFT, Director of Bereavement Services, and includes Kathleen Bradley, and Michy Brown, and 37 of volunteers, providing 1814 hours, annually.
In November 2015, the Memorial Garden at the Bereavement Center on Parallel Drive was opened in a candle-light ceremony, where families and friends reflected and remembered their loved ones. The Memorial Garden was a project of Lakeport Rotary.
Bereavement and Grief services are required to be offered by Medicare certified hospice agencies, however many hospice agencies provide the bare minimum to comply with the requirement. As you can see, this is not the case with the Community Bereavement Program at Hospice Services of Lake County.
Although the services are required, they are not funded. The services that we provide are thanks to the individual donations, sales at our three Thrift Stores (Lakeport, Clearlake, Middletown), and by a grant from the Redbud Healthcare District.