About How to Best Serve Families Before and After a Death: What Every Health Care Provider Should Know

In Part One of this presentation, participants will view the challenges and opportunities medical providers face when a patient is dying, through the lens of two oncologists and actual families from Dougy Center. Grand Rounds, hospital, and hospice staff have called this 20-minute video a “must-see for all medical providers.” Practical and ethical issues raised will be interactively discussed. In Part Two, the implications of diagnosing grieving children, teens, and adults with “Prolonged Grief Disorder” and the subsequent testing of a “grief pill” will be addressed, including social, cultural, and ethical implications and complications.

Learning Objectives

1. Cite three attributes or actions family members want from their medical care providers when a family member is dying
2. Appraise general and personal reasons why speaking openly about the impending death of a patient may be challenging
3. Evaluate the potential effects of labeling grief as a “mental disorder”
4. Assess the ethics and implications of treating grief with a “grief pill”

Pre-registration required.

Please contact us at info@srrn.net or call 989-781-5260 ext. 1 with any questions.

Information on sponsorship of this event is available in the navigation bar above. Help us grow our safety net when there is a concern for suicide.


Hope Starts Here is held annually on International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day (recognized the Saturday before Thanksgiving). It is a day for family and friends who have experienced a loss to suicide.

Our  local event is here to care for you. This year's event will be on Saturday, November 20, 2021 at Bavarian Inn Lodge. It includes welcome food, lunch, and guest speakers.


CME Accreditation and Disclosure Statement

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of Central Michigan University College of Medicine and Barb Smith Suicide Resource and Response Network. CMU College of Medicine is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Central Michigan University College of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum of 2.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.  

The planner and speaker have no relevant financial relationship with ineligible companies to disclose.

About Your Instructor

Donna L. Schuurman, EdD, FT, Senior Director of Advocacy & Education at the Dougy Center in Portland, Oregon, is our keynote speaker. Dr. Schuurman is internationally recognized as a leading authority on grief and bereaved children, teens, and families. In addition to authoring never ever the Same: Coming to Terms with the Death of a Parent (St. Martin’s Press, 2003), she has been a trusted expert featured in major publications such as The New York Times, USA Today, and Redbook. Dr. Schuurman has provided guidance to communities worldwide following tragedies including the Oklahoma City bombing, the 9/11 attacks, the Tohoku Earthquake, and the Sandy Hook school shootings.

Room Block

We have a block of rooms reserved at the Bavarian Inn Lodge. Contact their reservation department at 855-652-7200 use code #13K5AN to get a discounted room rate!