Helping Our Peers by Providing Empathy (HOPE)
Video / August 1, 2024
Transcript
Hi everyone. My name is Lauriane Bariteau. I'm the HOPE Coordinator and thank you for being here with us today.
HOPE is a national peer support bereavement program that has been supporting bereaved CAF members and families since 2006. We welcome the opportunity to talk about the whole program and the services we provide.
This quote is by Mr. Jim Davis, father of Corporal Paul Davis, who died in Afghanistan on March 2nd, 2006. It describes the positive impact that peer support can have. As Mr. Davis stated, speaking with someone who understood his pain made a difference and was the beginning of his healing journey. This demonstrates the power of peer support.
For Mr. Davis, it was easier to talk about his loss to someone who went through a similar experience. As you may know, grief is a difficult experience and no individual goes through it the same way. Grief will bring a variety of different emotions, and peer support can play a significant role in the bereaved individual's journey.
HOPE is a national peer support program. It matches trained peer volunteers with bereaved members and families.
Trained volunteers who have experienced a similar loss provide support and act as positive role models to help the members and families through their grief journey.The match is made based on the similarity of the loss, parent to parent, spouse to spouse, sibling to sibling.
This helps with identification between the volunteer and the peer and the deep sense of understanding. Peer helpers have the credentials due to their lived experience, have a non-judgmental approach and feel safe for the peers. They use a peer centered approach by providing active listening and focusing on the peer's needs.
Our mandate is to help members and families who have suffered the loss of a military member through individual peer support. The loss may be attributed to military service or any other cause.
It should be noted that there's no time limit to receive support and the whole program provides support as long as the peer needs it. The peer can enter the program at any time in their grief process. Members and families include any partner, sibling or significant person to the deceased over 18.
The education helps to reduce stigma of a grief and be confident in approaching bereaved individuals. The grieved individual can also understand the grief process better through education. Peer support aims to increase the confidence of the bereaved person and their ability to cope. The volunteer helps the peer adjust to their new reality through empathy, sharing, self-care and coping strategies, providing education on grief, encouraging change, and normalizing feelings. Peer support volunteers increase the peers' confidence and their ability to cope with their loss.
A family member who interacts with a peer support volunteer will not only feel the empathy and connectedness that comes from similar life experience, but this interaction will also foster hope and the possibility of regaining health, well-being, quality of life, and particularly resilience.
This program is unique in that it bridges the military and civilian experiences. For example, a parent may never have served in the military and has minimal or no context or understanding of the military culture, and they might not be able to receive that kind of support in the civilian community because, as we know, military grief is different from civilian grief.
The support is normally provided over the phone, although in some cases an in-person meeting can be offered. The HOPE support is offered in both official languages and all HOPE services are confidential.
Research done by Defense Research and Development Canada on the whole program was done to assess if the program is meeting the needs of bereaved military members and families. Overall, participants describe the program as highly effective and of vital importance to bereaved members and families who struggle with their loss. Findings also show that the program is having a significant positive impact on their emotional healing and family well-being.
Every two years, we conduct a whole program clientele satisfaction evaluation to make sure we keep meeting the needs of our peers. Please don't hesitate to contact us or visit our website For more information about the program. The phone number and e-mail are listed on this slide.