Helping communities deal with grief during the festive season

Murrumbidgee Primary Health Network (MPHN) is helping communities deal with grief and loss over the festive season by providing them with the guidance on how to organise a Christmas Tree of Remembrance.

MPHN’s At Home Palliative Care team have prepared a detailed guide for community groups and committees containing all the information and resources a group needs to plan, promote, and set up their own Christmas Tree of Remembrance.

MPHN’s At Home Palliative Care Project Manager Stacey Heer said the festive season can be a particularly challenging time for people managing grief.

“We’ve developed the Christmas Tree of Remembrance guide to support community groups to undertake this annual activity in their local communities,” Ms Heer said.

“Feelings of grief can be exacerbated by the sense of isolation that community members may already be experiencing. The Christmas Tree of Remembrance provides people with an opportunity to feel more connected with their community and with those whom they have lost.”

A Christmas Tree of Remembrance was installed at the Culcairn Library in 2019, as part of MPHN’s Compassionate Communities activities hosted by the Culcairn Local Health Advisory Committee (LHAC).

Community members were invited to write a message to deceased family members and friends and hang it on the tree as a way to include them in the spirit of Christmas. After Christmas, the messages were gathered, burnt and spread in a local remembrance garden.

Culcairn local Colleen Hoffmann said the Christmas Tree of Remembrance provided her with a fitting way to remember her late father, who passed away three weeks before Christmas.

“I found it to be a comfort to write a message about dad and place it on the Culcairn Christmas tree, acknowledging and honouring him, especially as I knew he would be missed by us all at this happy festive time,” Ms Hoffmann said.

Culcairn LHAC Chair David Gilmore said Ms Hoffmann was one of many local community members who benefitted from the initiative.

“We set up our Christmas Tree of Remembrance because we believed that during the festive season there was a need for locals to have the opportunity to remember their lost loved ones,” he said.

“We also wanted to provide a special and quiet place of remembrance, where they could sit and reflect on their lost loved ones throughout the year.”

Hard copies of the guide have been distributed to LHACs and libraries in the Murrumbidgee. To obtain a copy of the guide, email media@mphn.org.au.