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7 Tools Threads of Life offers for coping and healing after a workplace tragedy
One size does not fit all, nor should it. We’re individuals with vastly varying losses. The threads that connect us are that we’ve been affected by a workplace tragedy, and that we all know deep pain because of it.
Each individual is unique and has different needs. Here are 7 different tools we offer to help you on your life-long healing journey:
Five steps to find a “new normal”
When a workplace fatality, serious injury or disease happens, the old “normal” life is gone, and it won’t be coming back. How will you get there?
Workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths only happen to other people
I think it’s just human nature to believe that truly horrible things only happen to other people. That somehow, by virtue of being an average person with an average life and average dreams, the law of averages will also - somehow - mostly round out the devastating...
Book review: Patricia Pearson, Opening Heaven’s Door
With all that we know about our world and ourselves, there continues to be one mystery science can't penetrate: death. What is dying like? What happens to us after we die? With her book Opening Heaven's Door, writer Patricia Pearson aims to cast a light on the human...
Young worker safety: What more can we do?
Summer is here, and with it come summer jobs and young worker safety campaigns and enforcement blitzes. It’s the season of young worker safety.For many of our families here at Threads of Life, including mine, it’s personal. We know the horrific reality following a young worker fatality or a traumatic, life-altering injury. We also have family members whose loss occurred years later from disease caused by exposure to carcinogens at summer jobs.
Our weekend of hope
Driving to the family forum I begin to reflect on the weekend ahead: who I will meet for the first time; who I will get to see again; my confidantes; the people I trust; the people that “get it”. I can already feel the tension easing from my shoulders.
Writing your heart out
People have probably used writing as therapy for almost as long as the written word has existed. Somehow we just know that writing about our heartbreaks and joys makes us feel better. And psychology bears this out – writing about emotional upheavals can improve...
Sharing your voices: What did you learn from your Volunteer Family Guide?
When I came to work at Threads of Life, among the first members I met were two terrific women named Eva and Patti. Eva’s son was killed when he fell from the roof of a 60-foot building on a construction site in 2006. Eva is a trained Volunteer Family Guide, and she had been paired with Patti, whose son was also killed on the job in 2010. It was moving to see the bond between these two women. Patti has gone on to become a volunteer guide herself.
Forget Me Not: Canadian stories of workplace tragedy
“You’re in danger, but no one warns you…” author Scott Williams writes early in the book Forget Me Not. “Did you know what was about to happen? Did you feel the blow?”The story of Karl Stunt, who was killed working at a ski hill in Alberta, is just one of 21 stories...
Family Forum: “Somewhere I really needed to be”
They come in Friday evening looking nervous, hesitant, maybe even a bit hostile. And for good reason: these are family members whose child, spouse, parent or sibling has been killed on the job, permanently injured, or diagnosed with an occupational disease. They are arriving for the first time at a Threads of Life Family Forum, where they’ve been told they’ll learn to cope with their grief. By the time Sunday afternoon rolls around, there are hugs, tears, and maybe some laughter. They leave with new friends, reassured they are not alone in their struggles with grief and healing.
What’s normal about grief after a workplace death?
Secretly, don’t we all just want to know we’re normal? But when a workplace tragedy turns your world upside down, you may feel like “normal” is a whole different planet. The good news, according to Dr. Phil Carverhill, is that when it comes to grieving, “normal”...
Men, Grief and Anger
Jerry arrived at my counselling office angry and trembling. As I shut the door and sat down across from him, I could see he was livid. As he began to talk, it became clear that he had a bone to pick with the medical system of which I was a part. Melody, Jerry’s wife of thirty-five years, had suffered an aggressive form of cancer which the doctors had not immediately diagnosed. Following diagnosis, the couple experienced a string of medical gaffs and missteps that now, six months after her death, had become the focus of Jerry’s emotions. Actually, anger had pretty much taken over his life.
