Grief and Bereavement for LGBTQ Youth

Presentation Description

Individuals experience the processes of grief and bereavement in unique ways as they come to terms with the loss of life of persons who have been important to them. Members of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities, however, may face particular circumstances that affect these processes in complicated ways. Grief and bereavement for LGBT communities might include transitioning in terms of LGBT identity (“coming out”; coming to terms with the intersectionality of LGBT identity and religion/spirituality, racial identity, and/or ethnic identity; coping with community level grief and bereavement; and “suffocated” or “disenfranchised grief.”

About the Presenter

Johanna Bos is a LCSW and CASAC who has been working in the field of Mental Health and Substance Abuse services primarily for adolescents and young adults for over twenty years. She is trained in Motivational Interviewing, CBT, Seeking Safety and is a certified Narcan (Naloxone) administrator and trainer.

Bridget Hughes, M.A. is the Senior Director of Youth Services at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, overseeing the implementation of HMI’s programs for LGBTQ young people and their families, as well as outreach and education programs, and the replication of HMI’s youth service model to other sites in NYC and New Jersey. Before joining HMI, Hughes spent eighteen years working at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in Manhattan, during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, where she developed and directed the Youth Enrichment Services (Y.E.S.) Program, an innovative and dynamic activities-based, leadership and HIV prevention program for LGBT youth, and spearheaded the creation of the first and only free summer-camp program for LGBT youth in the country. Under Bridget’s direction, the Y.E.S. program received The Mental Hygiene Award from the City of New York in 2000 in recognition of service excellence and exceptional program performance, and was cited as a model substance abuse prevention program by the Division of Consumer Health Education of the University of Medicine & Dentistry; Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. In 1996, Hughes served on the National Institute of Mental Health, Office on AIDS’ Consortium on Technology Transfer, as part of a collaborative researcher-service provider team investigating the diffusion and replication of science-based practice in the field of HIV and substance abuse prevention. She is a co-author of the “Working It Out” intervention curriculum, a cognitive-behavioral HIV prevention intervention targeting lesbian, gay and bisexual youth, developed under the auspices of the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University.

Objectives

1. Recognize and articulate the types of non-death losses faced by the LGBTQ communities and youth.
2. To identify and understand the pscyhosocial phenomenon of disenfranchised grief among LGBTQ communities.
3. Articulate best practices for counseling bereaved LGBTQ youth and adolescents, and tools for strengthening coping skills among LGBTQ youth to support them through the experience of loss.