Volunteer bereavement group asking for support to help kids struggling with loss

IDAHO FALLS – Dealing with grief and bereavement after losing a family member or loved one can be challenging. A volunteer group with a local nonprofit helps children struggling with the loss of a parent.

Heartstone Youth Grief Group is part of Hospice and Palliative Care of Eastern Idaho at 1810 Moran Street in Idaho Falls. Bereavement coordinator Camille Cook tells EastIdahoNews.com it’s the only nonprofit hospice in eastern Idaho.

It offers home care services, like many other hospice clinics, but it also helps clients with terminal illnesses be comfortable in the final days of life. It’s for those who want to die peacefully in their own home, rather than spend it in a care facility.

“They receive pain management (care) and (retain) quality of life,” Cook says. “It helps people to die with dignity, while under their family’s care. We support the family.”

Although Hospice and Palliative Care has been around since 2000, Heartstone launched in 2017. The group held an open house last week.

Cook previously worked with the organization as a client. Around 2017, her husband, Steve — who has since passed away — was diagnosed with cancer. The couple traveled back and forth to Utah for months for surgeries, treatments and appointments.

EastIdahoNews.com surprised the couple in 2019 on behalf of a Secret Santa.

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Camille has since remarried, but she says the grief before and after Steve’s death was difficult for her and her family.

“Grief is a very personal thing, and it’s timeless,” says Cook. “Once you have lost someone, you will grieve (their passing) forever.”

Anna Long founded Heartstone in 2017. She moved to eastern Idaho from Boise to be closer to family after losing her husband to suicide. She’d been meeting with a grief group in Boise before she moved here, and was trying to find a similar group for her kids. There were none to be found.

“(Anna) was a nutritionist and had assisted Hospice of Eastern Idaho in caring for patients. She talked to our director and said they needed (bereavement services),” Cook says.

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Like Cook, Long and her family were the recipients of a monetary gift from Secret Santa in 2016, and it became the initial funding to launch Heartstone.

Cook’s experience prompted her to get involved with Heartstone and help others who were struggling with similar challenges.

“Their bereavement coordinator was retiring … and I was asked to be the bereavement coordinator,” Cook recalls. “When I came in, Heartstone had about 12 kids per session.”

Cook says they’ve helped hundreds of kids since then.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she says the need for bereavement services has skyrocketed, but many people aren’t aware that Heartstone exists.

In recent years, the group has partnered with the YMCA to secure additional space and to fund a grief camp for kids. Cook says they’d like to make the camp available to more people, but it takes money to do so.

“We’re trying to grow,” says Cook. “We’re trying to raise funds and find more volunteers as we need them. If we’re going to run a camp, we’re going to need a lot of counselors. We want to allow people to let their children come and participate (without worrying about the financial burden).”

“Kids often go to school and they don’t know anyone else who has lost a mom or dad or a sibling. It’s not something we talk about, and there’s such loneliness in (grief). When you come to a support group, you suddenly know 10 kids (who are in a similar situation), and you’re not alone anymore,” Cook adds.

Those who’d like to donate or get involved can call Cook at (208) 529-0342 ext. 116. You can also email ccook@hospiceofeasternidaho.com or visit the website.