Morris-Baker Continuing Education Seminar

Sudden deaths pose their own challenges to the bereavement experience. Experiences like car crashes create a “freeze frame” of the relationship, especially difficult when survivors sense unfinished business. Though not always completely unexpected, homicides, suicides, and substance overdoses are often accompanied by the shock of a traumatic loss even when families have lived in the dread of waiting for “the other shoe to drop.” Whatever the circumstances, however, caregivers are called on to help survivors make sense of these losses that are often filled with traumatic experiences, imagined scenarios of violence, and interpersonal guilt at what could have been different.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to. . .

• Apply an integrative approach to bereavement in unexpected death
• Effectively assess the role trauma plays in the bereaved individual’s experience and the family system
• Explain the impact of traumatic stress disorders (such as PTSD) on the bereavement process
• Differentiate ways grief and trauma are commonly confused
• Provide proven intervention strategies to help the patient/client effectively integrate the loss into life

To say that recent years have been challenging for health and human care workers would be an understatement of epic proportions! These years of a disease pandemic, economic uncertainty, and global unrest has brought grief to the front of our collective mind in ways we never would have imagined. But while we have busied ourselves taking care of this unparalleled onslaught of bereaved families, there has been precious little time to stop, reflect, and care for ourselves. Join us as we talk about five practical ways to take care of ourselves without wrecking our schedule or adding one more task to today’s “to do” list.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to. . .

• Articulate one’s sense of “calling to care” that is vital in compassion
• Reflect deeply on the expectations and benefits of caregiving
• Define compassion fatigue and describe its most common attributes
• Apply principles of life balance that enhance professional and personal well-being

Over the last 40 years, William G. (Bill) Hoy has been walking alongside the dying, the bereaved, and the professionals and volunteers who care for them. From 2012 to 2024, he served as Associate Director and Clinical Professor in the Medical Humanities Program at Baylor University. Dr. Hoy is widely regarded as an authority on the role of social support in loss and his experience includes more than 20 years leading bereavement and pastoral care programs in hospice care. Though primarily a bedside clinician, he is the author of nearly 250 articles and seven books. For more than 15 years, Dr. Hoy has served as educational program advisor to Morris-Baker Funeral Home.

Throughout the workshop, we will work together in small groups on three specific clinical case studies and then share findings and observations with the large group. This will be supplemented by PowerPoint-enhanced lectures that share principles and illustrate the principles with additional cases. The presenter will draw on the ideas shared from the groups to connect participants’ prior learning and experience to the new content and skills they are learning in this presentation.

Info: Menu: Salad, Vegetable Soup, and Potato Bar

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Summit Leadership Foundation, 3515 Bristol Highway, Johnson City, United States