Personal Touch

Welcome to the Neighborhood News

Hello everybody! I hope you have a great and peaceful Memorial Day.

In today’s Personal Touch interview with Rebecca Cressman, she has a one-on-one talk with Chaplain Mark Allison. Chaplain Mark Allison has spent many years beside people dealing with grief, loss, and the challenges of life. He is a Board Certified Chaplain and the supervisor for Clinical Chaplain Training, at the George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City, where he trains both civilian and military chaplains in inter-faith pastoral care and counseling. Mark holds a Masters of Arts Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and has been a Military Chaplain since 1986 serving tours of duty in the Persian Gulf War as well as in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. From 1999- 2007 he pioneered and established the first Chaplain Service at the University of Utah Hospital, School of Medicine, and Huntsman Cancer Hospital.

Our dear friend Marie Ricks, from House of Order, has contributed the article “As Light and Hope Dim: Dealing with Terminal Illness.” Since she has some experience dealing with situations that sometimes are unexpected, she decided to share them with us, so we can all be edified. She observes: “When you converse with someone that has a terminal illness or is the caretaker of someone with a terminal illness, inquire about the long term prognosis only occasionally. Then, focus on the current feelings, health, and needs of today, tomorrow, and this week. Most people with a terminal illness are long past feeling sorry for themselves.” Isn’t it great that we can go to people that have these kind of experiences and know that we’ll get good counsel?

Our next installment comes from the Church magazines. The author is Clifford J. Stratton, and he writes his article “Dealing with Death and Dying: Providing Emotional Support for the Bereaved or Terminally Ill.” He starts with a personal experience and then he delves in the topic of bereavement. He tells us: “It is important to remember that we feel a loss at every death. We long for the touch, the sight, the presence of the one we lost, and even a secure knowledge of the plan of salvation doesn’t take away the longing.”

Our last entry presents to us different resources to help us cope with terminal illnesses. It comes from the “Changing Nature of the American Family” blog. One of their assertions is as follows: “For families dealing with all types of illness, individual and group/family therapy can be an extremely useful tool for strengthening the family unit by encouraging effective communication.”

To view a copy of the Neighborhood News for Monday, 31 May’s, please click here.