Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

DATE: March 17, 2011
CONTACT: Dr. Roxanne Debski- Seigel
Karen Ann Quinlan Memorial Foundation
PHONE: 973-383-0115 FAX 973-383-6889
EMAIL: rdebski-seigel@karenannquinlanhospice.org

WEBSITE: www.karenannquinlanhospice.org

PHOTO: These children are being helped to cope with their losses of loved ones at the Joseph T. Quinlan Bereavement Center. Counseling and programs have been developed for elementary aged children on through teens.

Joseph T Quinlan Center Open House Welcomes Community.

The idea of a Joseph T Quinlan Bereavement Center grew out of the desire to provide the community, in addition to hospice families, grief support for loss of loved ones.

Before the first center was opened, there was a history of bereavement counseling provided by Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice as part of the hospice benefit. Cecelia T. Clayton, now Executive Director of the hospice, was then serving as Volunteer Coordinator and the initiator of many bereavement groups in existence today. Seeing a further need in the community, Clayton presented a proposal to the Hospice Board of Directors to create The Joseph T. Quinlan Bereavement Center. By acting on the opportunity of donated space from St. James Episcopal Church in Hackettstown, the hospice board was assured the bereavement programs would be available not only to hospice families, but to anyone in the community who was grieving a loss through death.

The center also held individual counseling and support groups for Sussex County at the Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice offices located at 99 Sparta Ave, Newton. The area’s demand for grief counseling for both adults and children has increased over the last ten years since the first center was opened in 2000 and they quickly outgrew the hospice office space that was providing local programs.

At the beginning of this year, The Joseph T. Quinlan Bereavement Center opened a second location on 61 Spring St., Newton. Director of Bereavement, Diana Sebzda, MA, LPC, CT, has put into practice many additional programs and activities.

The services provided at the center will consist of anticipatory grief and bereavement programs which are offered to hospice families and the entire community.

Included are:

• Coping With Loss Support Groups
• Individual Grief Counseling Sessions
• Children’s Art Bereavement Programs
• Pet Loss Support Groups
• Healing in the Classroom workshops for our schools
• Movie Nights and Bereavement Facilitator Training Series.

Also for this event, their will be a “butterfly” art display and silent auction. The “butterfly” is the symbol of transformation and majestically honors the life cycle with its impressive process of metamorphosis and has served as the symbol for grief and hospice.

The Sussex County Arts and Heritage Council has donated an original butterfly art piece and all original works displayed will be available via a silent auction held that evening and proceeds will benefit both the Arts Council and the Bereavement Center.

If you would like to get to know the Joseph T Quinlan Bereavement team please join them at their Grand Opening and Open House celebration to be held Wednesday, March 30th from 4 to 7:00 p.m. Parking is available on the Trinity St entrance and the bereavement center can be accessed via the Trinity Street ground floor level or for handicap access via the Spring Street entrance and take the elevator to the 1st floor.

The center is a non-profit and is able to offer this care through donations and grants from our clients and the community; no one is ever turned away regardless of ability to pay.

If you, or someone you know, are in need of grief counseling and would like to be part of a support group, the Joseph T. Quinlan Bereavement Centers offers these services at the following locations.

• Sussex County –61 Spring St., Newton, NJ 07860
• Warren County –214 Washington St., Hackettstown, NJ 07840
• Pike County PA –The Church at Hemlock Farms, Hawley PA or the United Methodist Church, Milford PA.

For more information, please call 800-882-1117 for a brochure or you may also visit www.karenannquinlanhospice.org for support group details.