One out of 20 children will have a parent die before they graduate high school — approximately 150,000 children in Pennsylvania alone. Many other children experience the death of brothers or sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles or close friends.
Yet, as many children as this is, a grieving child often feels isolated and alone, different from all of his or her classmates, friends and peers. Grieving children feel alone and afraid, heart-broken andoverwhelmed.
When a family member dies, a child’s life is turned upside down. The impact is devastating — nothing is ever the same. It is often the defining moment of their lives.
These children need help and support. The Highmark Caring Place is a safe place where grieving children and families can come together and be with others who understand what they’re going through.
The Highmark Caring Place does not provide therapy or counseling. What is provided is peer support. The children who attend come to know that they are not alone in their grief, in their experiences and feelings. Grief is not an illness. It is a natural, normal response to the death of someone we love. At the Caring Place, children share their feelings, memories and experiences. They and their families get support and encouragement from each other, facilitated by a caring community made up of professionals, trained volunteers, and other children and adults who have also experienced a death.
The larger mission of the Highmark Caring Place is to raise awareness in the community of the needs of grieving children and how to respond to them. Beyond peer support groups, the Highmark Caring Place provides referral services, adult telephone support, and educational programs and resources for grieving children and families, as well as consultation services, educational presentations, and resources for schools and other professionals in the community who work with children.
The Highmark Caring Place is an essential community resource, offering services at no charge to any grieving child or adolescent. The Highmark Caring Place operates four facilities, located in downtown Pittsburgh, Warrendale (a northern suburb of Pittsburgh), Erie and near Harrisburg. Since the opening of the Highmark Caring Place in 1997, the program has served more than 30,000 family members and community partners.
For more information about the Highmark Caring Place, call:
For additional information about the Highmark Caring Place, please visit www.highmarkcaringplace.com.