Beyond the Service: How You Can Offer Care and Comfort to Grieving Families

7/11/2024

As a deathcare practitioner, you play a crucial role in supporting families during one of the most challenging times of their lives. Grief is messy and unpredictable, and knowing how to offer compassionate and thoughtful support can make a significant difference. Here are five strategies to help you support grieving families effectively.

1. Forget the Five Stages of Grief

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross's five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—were based on observations of terminally ill patients. These stages are not universal or linear. Grief is deeply personal and unpredictable, more like a Choose Your Own Adventure book than a roadmap. Your role is to help families begin to navigate their unique journey through grief, and help them take care not to prescribe to a specific path or pattern.

2. Be Awkward, Be Vulnerable

It’s normal to feel uncomfortable when supporting someone who is grieving. Avoid using clichés or making unhelpful remarks like, "He's in a better place," or "At least you can have more children." These comments can inadvertently diminish their grief. Instead, acknowledge your discomfort and offer sincere support: "Sometimes it’s hard to know what to say, but I want you to know I’m here for you.” This honesty shows grieving individuals that they are not alone and that their feelings are valid.

3. Offer Grief Support Resources in Your Aftercare Program

Grief can linger for weeks, months, or even years. As a deathcare practitioner, you can help families find the additional support they need. Keep a list of local resources, such as group counseling or therapy, that may benefit them. Websites like ForGrief.com connect grieving individuals with a range of support options, including downloadable resources, Grief Chats™ with professionals, community support, and online courses tailored to their needs. Share these resources on your website, via your social media outlets, or as part of your aftercare program. Providing these resources shows that you care about their long-term well-being.

4. Encourage Grief Breaks

Grieving is emotionally and physically exhausting, and people may feel guilty about taking breaks from their grief. Encourage them to take "grief breaks” during the funerary activities. Similar to recess for kids, activities like a brief walk or simply few moments away from the events can help a person who is grieving to recharge. Remind your families that taking time to rest does not minimize their grief nor encourage denial. Instead, it helps them maintain their strength to continue their grieving process.

5. Take Care of Yourself

Working with grieving families daily can lead to death and grief overload. To be at your best for your families, it's crucial to care for yourself. Use resources to assess your own burnout level and ensure you’re getting the support you need. Taking vacations, exploring hobbies outside the deathcare and grief space, and making time for exercise are all beneficial. During working hours, check in with your staff after particularly challenging arrangements, encourage regular breaks, and set reminders to stay hydrated. These practices will help maintain your well-being and effectiveness, and help you help those who are grieving.

Conclusion

Remember, grief has no timeline. In your role, your support means offering compassion and respect, walking the path with those who are grieving, and letting them know they are not alone. You don’t need to have all the answers—your presence and willingness to help are often enough. By employing these strategies, you can make a meaningful difference in the lives of grieving families, providing them with the support and understanding they need during such a difficult time.

A deeper dive into how people grieve and aftercare support take the stage at the 106th Annual Cremation Innovation Convention this September 11-13, 2024 in Chicago. In Kelly Manion’s dynamic session, The Power of Human Connection: Elevating Your Grief Support & Aftercare Programs, attendees will learn valuable insights into the diverse way people (including yourself) experience grief, and how you can support them. You’ll also learn how to take your brand to the next level by integrating grief support into your aftercare program to help position your firm as a pillar of support in your community.

See what else we have planned and register for CANA's 106th Convention today!

Kelly Manion has dedicated nearly 25 years to purpose-driven work and has over a decade of experience in the funeral service profession. As the Director of Consumer Marketing at Homesteaders Life Company, Kelly is committed to promoting the importance of aftercare and providing a positive consumer experience. In addition, Kelly is a certified grief support specialist who offers valuable resources to those who are grieving via ForGrief.com. Prior to joining Homesteaders, Kelly played a crucial role at the Funeral Service Foundation, where she spearheaded the creation and implementation of award-winning initiatives including Youth & Funerals, Grieving Alone & Together, Caring for Families & Caring for Yourself, and Journey to Serve.

Cybersecurity Risk for Small Businesses: How to Protect Your Data and Customers

7/2/2024

Learn about the common cyber threats that target small businesses that handle sensitive information and what you can do to prevent them.

Suppose you run a small business that handles personal health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII), or payment card information (PCI). In that case, you need to be aware of the cybersecurity risks that you face. Cybercriminals are constantly looking for ways to steal, compromise, or destroy your data, and they often target small businesses that have fewer resources and security measures than larger organizations.

The cost of a data breach for a small to midsize business (SMB) can be substantial. On average, a data breach costs an SMB around $217,000 per incident per the Garter® Top Trends in Cybersecurity for 2024. This figure includes immediate financial impacts such as legal fees, fines, and remediation costs.

However, the hidden costs can be even more significant. For example, the average cost of lost business due to a data breach is $1.52 million. This loss stems from eroded customer trust and the potential exodus of clients, which can be catastrophic for businesses that rely on a loyal customer base.

Additionally, operational disruptions, productivity losses, and data restoration costs add to the financial burden. For instance, downtime can cost SMBs an average of $8,000 per hour.

Given these high stakes, investing in comprehensive cybersecurity measures is crucial for protecting against the costs and disruptions of a cyberattack.

Common Threats

Some of the most common cyber threats that small businesses face are:

Phishing: This is a type of social engineering attack in which cybercriminals send fraudulent emails or messages that appear to come from legitimate sources, such as your bank, your vendor, or your customer. The goal is to trick you into clicking on a malicious link, opening an infected attachment, or providing sensitive information, such as your login credentials, credit card number, or tax ID. Phishing can lead to identity theft, account takeover, ransomware infection, or data leakage.
Ransomware: This type of malware encrypts your files or systems and demands a ransom for their decryption. Ransomware can cripple your business operations, and even if you pay the ransom, there is no guarantee that you will get your data back. Ransomware can be delivered through phishing, drive-by downloads, or unpatched vulnerabilities.
Data Breach: This term refers to any unauthorized access, disclosure, or theft of your data, whether intentional or accidental. Data breaches can occur due to phishing, ransomware, malware, insider threats, human error, or poor security practices. They can result in financial losses, legal consequences, reputational damage, and customer churn.

Best Practices

To reduce the cybersecurity risk for your small business, you should follow these best practices:

Train your employees: Your employees are both your first defense line and your weakest link. You should educate them on how to recognize and avoid phishing, use strong and unique passwords, enable multi-factor authentication (MFA), backup and encrypt their data, and report any suspicious activity or incident.
Update your software: You should keep your operating systems, applications, and antivirus software updated with the latest security patches and updates. This will help you prevent hackers from exploiting known vulnerabilities in your software.
Secure your network: To protect your network from unauthorized access and intrusion, you should use a firewall, a VPN, and a secure Wi-Fi network. You should also limit access to your network and data to only those who need it and use encryption and authentication to secure your data in transit and at rest.
Back up your data: You should regularly back up your data and store it in a separate location, such as an external hard drive, a cloud service, or a secure offsite facility. This will help you recover your data in case of a ransomware attack, a natural disaster, or a hardware failure.
Have a response plan: You should have a clear and documented plan for responding to a cyber incident, such as a data breach or a ransomware attack. Your plan should include your team's roles and responsibilities, the steps to contain and mitigate the incident, the communication channels to notify your customers and stakeholders, and the resources to restore your operations and data.

In today's digital age, the threat of a personal or business cyberattack looms over all of us. Take a proactive stance against cyber threats and learn how to identify phishing attacks and malware schemes so you will be better prepared to safeguard your data with Lee Hovermale this September.

At CANA’s 106th Annual Cremation Innovation Convention, Lee will present on Cybersecurity Awareness: Recognizing a Threat, and Protecting Your Data. This session will empower you with information you can use to navigate the online world securely and protect yourself and your company. See what else we have planned and register to join Lee in Chicago this September: cremationassociation.org/CANA24

Lee Hovermale is the Strategic Advisor to the CEO of KiZAN Technologies. He has over 30 years of experience in cybersecurity and 15 years in compliance. Lee is a vCISO for six companies and a vCIO for four, managing budgets, staff meetings, vendors, security policies, vendor/client questionnaires, and security audits. His cybersecurity experience comes from his time in the Navy and in a federal government agency.