Event Calendar

The sense of grief and loss from living in the chaos of Substance Use Disorder (SUDs) and mental health is very traumatic. The loss of a parent/caregiver due to removal or drug related death is traumatic for a child especially if they are placed in a “foster” home, not kinship care. The lack of support resources is a national issue and concern. The Circle of Care (CoC) is a IFRC project that created an in-depth variety of resources for both professionals and natural helpers to support our “littles” and teens impacted by SUDS. Research shows that the trauma related to grief and loss resulting from SUDs and mental health is more dramatic and more often miss handled due to a lack of understanding the impact of the stigma and bias associated with SUDs. In this workshop we will share the research regarding the unique trauma and impact of grief/loss associated with our youth. We will share the hundreds of resources on the CoC webpage. We will demonstrate how to generate an important support tool called a Comfort Bags and discuss how you may create this tool that meets the needs of your community and/or family.