Study of Loss Park’s new Center to Advance the Study of Loss will address end-of-life complexities No one wants to think about death. Yet every day, thousands of nurses, physicians, social workers, counselors and clergy grapple with a maze of increasingly complex circumstances surrounding illness, death and grief. For a culture making great strides in postponing the inevitable, the process of dying and death is posing new social, emotional and ethical challenges. To create a bridge between academic study and applied knowledge in fields related to end-of-life care, Park University has launched the Center to Advance the Study of Loss. CASL will provide training and support to professionals in a variety of disciplines who provide direct support to those facing or coping with death, dying and bereavement. CASL is the result of a partnership that started three years ago when Tulsa, Okla., based Crossroads Hospice, one of the nation’s leading providers of hospice care, provided a $10,000 grant for a new program to pair Park students from a wide variety of disciplines — including nursing, psychology, social work and journalism — with Crossroads Hospice patients to document patients’ life stories by creating personalized memory books.
Summer 2013 - 16