Illness and loss have huge impact on team - 26 April 2010

It has been a tough month for the True Colours team! As an organisation we support families in relation to illness of a child. We recognise the impact illness and grief have on all members of the family and those close to them.

 

Over this last month our own team has experienced, and is, experiencing critical illness, grief and loss first hand. We are a small team of five and often relate to each other as our ‘work family’. So when something quite significant happens to three of our ‘family’ particularly when this is in relation to loss and grief, life and death situations, it has a huge impact.

 

 

As we continue to work our way through these experiences I have been overwhelmed with people’s kindness and generosity to ‘wrap around’ and support us as individuals and as a team. As we continue to support the families that are referred to our service for nursing and psychosocial care we feel the strong presence of those caring for us as a team.

 

It is true that at times of crisis or in grief there is a clarity that may not have been present before. Relationships grow stronger, or differences in those relationships become more apparent. It is also a time for growth and development and new beginnings as the thoughts and feelings that are evoked cause us to try and make meaning. Our reflections challenge us to take account of our own personal way of being alongside the professional connections that shape us as a team.

 

As we ‘walk the walk’ of all that families share with us in their own places of illness, grief and loss it is timely to remember that within some of the pain there is beauty in the connections of relationship. Connectedness is the heart and soul of our work – to not stand alone at a time when illness, loss and grief have entered the sanctuary of all that makes you feel safe in the world; the connection of caring relationships allows us to carry on.

 

To all those who have supported the True Colours team over the last month, it has been appreciated and will never be forgotten. It is true; ‘the greatest treasure – He Tangata He Tangata He Tangata – it is people ,it is people, it is people’.