First Week!

Amita B -

Hi everyone!

This is the progress I’ve made so far! I met with my advisor to discuss volunteering opportunities and ways I can contribute beyond participating as a volunteer during grief group nights, making sure I complete my 10-hour requirement. Today, I’ll be heading in to help create manuals and set up activities for the grief groups!

A bit more about what grief group night means—each Monday and Tuesday, they hold different grief support groups based on the type of loss. Mondays are typically for those who have lost a spouse, while Tuesdays are for Traumatic Loss.

Additionally, we discussed my interviews for the project. I need to interview parents and staff, but my advisor suggested also interviewing volunteers. This was a great idea I hadn’t considered! Volunteers are more likely to be open about their experiences, as many of them have lost a loved one themselves—some have lost spouses, and others are parents who have lost children. Their perspectives on grief would be incredibly valuable for my research!

Along with volunteers, I will be interviewing staff members, and I’ve already been given a few names of people willing to participate. I want to compare the perspectives of staff and volunteers to see if their experiences align or differ. Since staff members work with grieving children regularly, I’m curious whether their observations match what volunteers and online research suggest.

Right now, I’m finalizing my interview questions for each group. The interviews will be semi-structured, with a core set of similar questions and a few tailored ones for each group to allow for comparison.

That’s all for my first week—thank you for following along!

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Comments:

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    aashi_h
    I love the idea for this project! For your interview questions, how will you make sure there is a balance between the amount of quantitative and qualitative questions you will ask to ensure you collect variations in types of data?
    shreyash_p
    Great work Amita. I love how you're going beyond just volunteering and actively contributing to the grief groups. Including volunteers in your interviews is a great idea - they’ll likely provide unique, personal insights. Excited to see how their perspectives compare with staff members! Looking forward to your next update! Best, Shreyash
    camille_bennett
    Looks like a great start to your project. How do you think group counseling as a modality helps with the experience of grief?
    amita_b
    Hi Aashi! I’m planning to track how often certain themes come up in the interviews to make sure I capture both the qualitative insights and the frequency of specific ideas or behaviors. This should help in analyzing the variations in responses!
    amita_b
    Thanks so much, Shreyash!
    amita_b
    Thank you, Mrs. Bennett! I think group counseling can be really helpful for grief because it provides a space where people can connect with others who are going through similar experiences. It reduces the feeling of isolation, as grieving can often make people feel alone, especially when they don't have others to talk to who truly understand. This is especially important for kids who are just trying to find people going through the same thing and seeking some form of normality in their grief.

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