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Hiking Off the Grief with TRU

February 26, 2016 by TRU Community Care

Updated post! Dates are set for our kids-teens-and-parent hiking groups.

Once again this season, we will offer a way to combine exercise and support for people who are grieving or caregiving. The idea for organizing hikes came from a realization that “nature heals”, and that participating in a traditional grief support group, especially immediately after a loss, can be too difficult for some people.The hikes have a mostly free structure. Route, pace and duration are flexible, depending on the participants, the weather and the season.Making connections with fellow hikers, especially those who have shared similar losses, can be the greatest comfort. Caregivers too stand to benefit, both from the emotional support and respite these outings provide.
TRU Hiking Groups are open to Boulder hospice families, as well as the community.

For Kids, Teens and Parents
This offering is for families – parents will go on one trail, teens will go on another and kids will go on their own. Each group will have a group facilitator. We do a series of six hikes and you can remember your special person who has died, be around others that are going through the same thing and get support.
You are responsible for transportation to the meeting place at the trailhead each week and to bring water and snacks. Pre-registration required, with hikes starting on Tuesday, May 3 at 5 p.m. at the Chautauqua ranger station. See our grief services page for details and to RSVP.

TRU Community Care Celebrates Four Decades of Service

February 16, 2016 by TRU Community Care

senior couple OL

LAFAYETTE, COLORADO – In 2016, TRU Community Care, founded in 1976 as the first Colorado hospice, is celebrating a major milestone.
This year marks the hospice service’s 40th anniversary, meaning that the nonprofit has been caring for those who are dying and their families for four decades. In celebration, TRU is planning two exciting 40^th anniversary events throughout the year and sharing part of its history with the hospice community. June 26 will bring a 40^th celebration party and groundbreaking for a new elder care and grief services facility, and TRU’s annual fundraiser, PIZZAZ!, will cap off the milestone with style on Sept. 17.

The Pioneers of the Early Years
TRU Community Care began as Boulder County Hospice in 1976, when one of the organization’s founders was asked, “Have you ever thought about starting a hospice?”
The question was posed to Beau Bohart Rezendes, who was finishing her Ph.D. dissertation on death and dying when she asked Dr. Darvin Smith what he thought could be done to help people who were dying or aged. His thought-provoking response was the beacon that pointed the way for Bohart Rezendes. Before long, she was talking to anyone who would listen about starting a hospice in Boulder County.
Among those she approached were Kathryn Riddle-Oakes (then called Kitty Riddle), a well-known community organizer with vast experience in volunteer activities; Dr. Alan Snyder, an internist/oncologist at the Boulder Medical Center; and Karin Sobeck, who had just completed her master’s degree in mental health nursing and was holding workshops on death and dying across the country. Along with Marcia Lattanzi-Licht, a respected psychiatric nurse who was involved in grief-related work, this team of professionals added their talents and energy to the quest to bring hospice care to Boulder County.
“I think all of us came with the vision that there were better ways to care for people who were dying and grieving and that there were clear gaps in services,” said Lattanzi-Licht.

Taking the Next Steps with Hospice
Filling those gaps would prove to be a challenging mission. In the beginning, the group met in living rooms. They stored donations in a cigar box. They paid their own way to hospice care conferences on pain management. Despite such humble beginnings, they never wavered in their steadfast commitment to the cause, and by early 1977, Boulder County Hospice incorporated as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. Not surprisingly, its all-volunteer management team was comprised of the dedicated professionals who have come to be known as the nonprofit’s founders as well.
The organization’s first patient received hospice care in June of 1977. And thanks to one provocative question and five remarkable visionaries, the organization has grown to become TRU Community Care, offering hospice, palliative care, grief services, and soon TRU PACE (Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly.) PACE represents an opportunity to create a broader continuum of care for frail elders in Boulder and southwest Weld Counties in northern Colorado. The opening of the PACE site, which also will house TRU Hospice Grief Support, will be a chance to celebrate with the local community the years of service TRU has provided.
As TRU Community Care’s visionary founders look back on the organization’s past and to its future, they all agree – a dream has been fulfilled.

Helping Kids Survive the Holidays

November 24, 2015 by TRU Community Care

Holidays are difficult for kids & teens that have lost a loved one and are learning to navigate their grief journey. We understand how complicated this time can be for them, and have several groups offerings to help them survive the holidays. For more information on them or to see our full list of grief groups for kids and teens, click here.

Healing with Horses – Coping with the Holidays

This is a two week workshop offered for all ages 5-18. We combine equine-assisted activities with peer support to share stories, play games and be together remembering our special people who have died.

We learn various ways to care for horses and ourselves during the holidays. We will be talking about what helps us and what things we want to do this holiday season with our families.

You must pre-register to participate.

Meeting: December 8th & 15th
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

Location: Medicine Horse, 8778 Arapahoe Road, Boulder CO, 80303

Download the flyer here: Coping with the Holidays – Healing with Horses 2015

Healing Circles Glass Memories Teen Group

We are also offering our teen Grief and Glass workshop. These workshops are for teens aged 13-18 who have had a death loss and want to remember their special person by creating some glass art.The group will learn glass blowing safety skills, how to marver, blow, shape and manipulate the glass with some color application. They will learn how to make a bowl, an ornament and a paper weight.

The maximum number for this group is eight and there is a registration interview required with both teen and parent/guardian prior to acceptance.

Meeting: December 20th or 27th
9:30 am – 12:00 noon

Location: C & H Glassworks, 11354 West 13th Ave #6, Lakewood, CO 80211

Download the flyer here: Coping with the Holidays 2015

Colorado Gives Day 2015

November 24, 2015 by TRU Community Care

Colorado Gives Day is an annual statewide movement to celebrate and increase philanthropy in Colorado through online giving. For the sixth year, Community First Foundation and FirstBank are partnering to present Colorado Gives Day on Tuesday, December 8, 2015. Donations are accepted through ColoradoGives.org

We hope that you will join us this year! Last year we raised over $28,000 through your generous donations and community support. No matter the size, all donations will benefit patients and families in our care as well as help provide grief services to them and our community.

Donations can be scheduled in advance up to Monday, December 7th. In order for us to qualify for the incentive fund, all donations must be made through the Colorado Gives website.

For more information on this event or on how to schedule your donation, please visit our Community Events page.

Tips for Getting Through the Holidays when You Are Grieving

November 23, 2015 by TRU Community Care

Tips for Getting Through the Holidays when You Are Grieving

Acknowledge that this year will be different. Eliminate whatever you need to. There is nothing you must do. Grief depletes energy. Because of this lessened energy, the simplest of tasks may loom large and insurmountable. How can you face dinners and parties when smiling and laughter feel like the twist of a knife in the raw wound of your loss? How can you attend religious services with all of their reminders and implied promises?

Decide ahead of time how you want to spend the holidays. You may choose to be with family or alone, to go out of town or stay home with movies.

Do things that feel right for you, not because your loved one would have wanted it that way, or because your family thinks you should.

Give yourself permission to change whatever traditions or rituals that you need to change. Nothing is written in stone! Just because something has been done a certain way for twenty years doesn’t mean that it is the only way to do it. Change things if you want to. The option to return to the old traditions will be there next year and the year after.

Break the silence about your loved one so that others know that it is OK to talk about him or her with you.

Change the time, locations and/or menu of traditional meals. Or eliminate them altogether this year. Attend religious services at a different time than usual or at another house of worship-or don’t go at all this year. Decorate differently, have someone else decorate, decorate exactly the same as always or don’t decorate at all. Open gifts at a different time than you did before.

Memorialize your loved one in some way that is both important to you and would have meaning for him or her. It needn’t be a large gesture, but it is helpful if it has a unique and personal value. You can acknowledge that your deceased loved one isn’t there by putting a candle in their honor on the table, or making a toast, or by visiting the cemetery.

Break large tasks into small pieces. Don’t be afraid to delegate tasks to others.

Tell your family and friends what you need to feel supported. It may be to do shopping for you, help you cook dinner, or help you create new traditions. They would probably like to help you but don’t know what to do. Tell them as specifically as you can.

Be flexible in your plans, knowing that your energy, moods and needs may change quickly.

Set aside time to be alone and grieve, to reminisce or journal.

Recognize the sources of discomfort, try to anticipate even the smallest part that might elicit pain, and then decide what can or cannot be faced, altered or eliminated.

Take care of your own health; guard your own strength and energy. It is OK to say, “No” to invitations. It is difficult to predict your feelings and energy levels, so it’s also OK to change your mind at the last minute about attending dinners, parties and religious services or to leave a function early. You must be your own guide.

Be aware of the stresses of grief on your body and mind. Eat well (use sugar, caffeine and alcohol moderately), exercise, and get enough sleep.

If you wish to go away for the holidays, do so. Remember though that you will take your thoughts and your grief with you.

Do something you have never done before. Give your own life a degree of meaning and value no matter how bereft you are feeling.

Visit support groups, community memorials or church services with people that you know will support your experience.

For more information on our grief groups or to contact us, click here.

Grief Services Winter Newsletter

November 13, 2015 by TRU Community Care

Our winter Grief Services newsletter has arrived & is available to download and share. Click the link below to read helpful tips for the grief journey, recommending readings, and winter grief group offerings:

Grief Services Newsletter Winter 2015

For more information on our Grief Services, click here.

National Hospice Month 2015

November 4, 2015 by TRU Community Care

Lights of Life 2015

October 26, 2015 by TRU Community Care

This holiday season, we invite you to remember someone who has been special in your life by attending our Lights of Life Holiday Remembrance Service. This indoor service will feature moments to honor and remember as well as connect with others in similar situations.

For your convenience, we are having a Lights of Life Holiday Remembrance Service both in Longmont and Boulder. RSVP’s are appreciated. For more information or to register, please click here.

Halloween Blues

October 5, 2015 by TRU Community Care

As it gets darker earlier, it gets colder and Halloween is just around the corner, there are so many fall activities that time can feel compressed or over scheduled.

How do you cope with the holiday blues if this is an important holiday to you? How do you have the emotional energy to face this holiday without dread? Each person handles their grief differently. Here is one idea for Halloween. On the holiday, set aside five minutes to check in with your senses. What do you:

SEE? SMELL? TASTE? TOUCH? HEAR?

This helps you if you are feeling anxious or sad. Take a pause and acknowledge where you are in the moment. This is a way to know how you are on this holiday, without too much effort or energy. If you want to, jot it down. For example this Halloween, I might see the birds in the sky flying over. I hear the sound of traffic, etc.

If you want to spend some time reflecting about your loved one, do the same thing again.

SEE? SMELL? TASTE? TOUCH? HEAR?

What sounds do you think of when you think of your loved one? Or smell? Is it the food he/she made or something that he or she used? For example, when I think of my mother, I remember the smell of cold leaves before going trick or treating, or her popcorn balls that smelled of hot sugar.

Sensory memories are quite unique for each person and special. We often can associate those sensory memories in our present life. It gives us connection with a loved one that is no longer here.

On Halloween, I will set out a pumpkin, plug in some lights, order take out because I don’t have energy to cook and I will remember her when I smell the cold leaves on Halloween night.

Be gentle with yourselves in grief.

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