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Be
available. |
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Face
your own feelings of loss and grief. |
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Be
open and honest. Create an atmosphere of open acceptance
that invites questions and fosters confidence and
love. |
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Encourage
expressions of grief (talking, crying, yelling,
etc.). |
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Listen
with your ears, eyes, and heart. |
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Touch.
This often "says" more than words. Touch
can say, "I know what happened and I care.
I am here if you need me." |
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Do
not isolate or insulate a friend from grief. Grief
is a normal and natural reaction to loss of any
kind. |
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Acknowledge
the reality that grief hurts. Do not attempt to
rescue the person (or yourself) from hurt. Work
through the pain. |
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Respect
a person's need to grieve. Almost anything can trigger
grief. |
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Realize
that grief causes difficulty in concentrating. Teenagers
often experience a shortened attention span. School
work is often affected. |
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Maintain
a daily routine if at all possible. Continuity becomes
a safety net for grieving teenagers. The continuity
of attending school daily, being required to perform
certain tasks in and out of school and having a
social routine provides teens with some security
and sense of stability in a topsy-turvy world. |
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Understand
that people will continue to deal with the losses
and changes they experience as they grow and mature.
They may never get over their loss, but they can
learn to grow through the grief and discover that
love never goes away. Let them know that there can
be a bright future after a painful loss, but healing
takes time. |
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