Another young writer, Alicia Parlette, who wrote about her cancer for the San Francisco Chronicle, died on April 22. While young people seem particularly comfortable sharing their experiences publicly and online, older writers such as Judi Chamberlin (who wrote her Life as a Hospice Patient blog until her death in January 2010) also share their end-of-life stories with the general public.
After the death, social networking sites serve as a place for people to gather and mourn together. This recent article from the Kansas City Star discusses sites like Legacy.com, where online obituaries serve as a virtual place for people to mourn.
HFA is holding a webinar on the role of Internet support for grieving children and adolescents on June 15, 2010. It is the third in a series on Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Grief and Loss. This webinar is designed to help counselors, clergy, social workers, child life specialists, educators, guidance counselors, funeral directors, and parents understand the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing the Internet in grief and learn strategies for opening a dialog with children and adolescents about the ways the use the Internet as they mourn.
The discussion will include a look at both social networking sites and grief-specific sites, as well as the impact that role-playing and on-line gaming may have in a young person's experience of loss. The panel will focus on both the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet as a form of grief support for adolescents, and give some specific examples of how they have used this technology to support young people.
