Health

Last week, Hearts of Hope of Newtown, CT hosted a special Paint with a Purpose event to honor the memory of our friend, Russell Stiles. Russell was a member of the Ability Beyond community, an organization that offers services to more than 3,000 individuals with disabilities throughout Connecticut and New York. On October 25, we…

It’s difficult to be there for the people we love when they’re grieving. Nobody wants to say the wrong thing. When we don’t know what to do, many of us decide to do nothing at all. We think it’s better to avoid it entirely than to make a mistake. That is a major myth about…

You’ve probably heard of the five stages of grief. But did you know that they don’t represent the full complexity of grief? From pop culture to mass media, countless conversations about grief talk about navigating these five steps: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. But the reality of grief is far more complicated and nuanced than…

How long does it take to “get over” grief? Everyone who has gone through a loss knows that is an impossible question to answer. You might feel most of your grief before an ill grandparent dies, or the grief of being estranged from a parent might not hit you until years after the loss. There…

Kids today are in a mental health crisis. Over 40% of high school students experience signs of depression, and a third of adolescents struggle with anxiety. Many factors in a changing world are impacting young people’s mental health, but we often overlook how significantly kids are impacted by their parents and adult caregivers. The kids…