Joliet hospice offering grief workshop series in May

Joliet hospice offering grief workshop series in May

Joliet hospice offering grief workshop series in May

Fall photo of Lightways outdoor pond in Joliet, IL

Lightways Hospice and Serious Illness Care in Joliet will offer the workshop on four consecutive Thursdays in May. Pictured are the grounds of Lightways Hospice and Serious Illness Care, an independent, nonprofit healthcare provider licensed in 11 counties in Illinois. (Denise Unland)

A Joliet hospice organization will offer strategies for coping with grief at a workshop in May.

Lightways Hospice and Serious Illness Care will offer a Spring Grief Workshop on four consecutive Thursdays in May, according to a news release from Lightways.

These free workshops will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. May 9, May 16, May 23 and May 30. Each workshop will address a different aspect of the grieving process, according to the release.

Registration deadline is May 1. Workshops will be held in-person at Lightways, 320 Water Stone Way in Joliet, as well as virtually.

Patrice Martin, director of grief Support Services at Lightways, said in the release that Lightways grief counselors will lead the workshops. Anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one is welcome to attend.

“Through the grief process, people will experience not just a wide variety of emotions, but also other grief reactions that often catch us by surprise,” Martin said in the release. “We explore these reactions with our participants and help them to understand where they might be coming from.”

Read the full article at Shaw Local

NHPCO 2018 Award

NHPCO 2018 Award

NHPCO 2018 Award

Misc. photos with text NHPCO

Joliet Area Community Hospice (JACH) is proud to announce that one of their volunteers, Jim (J.P) Morgan, was the chosen as one of four recipients nationwide to receive the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) 2018 Volunteers Are the Foundation of Hospice Award in the category of Organizational Support. Morgan was presented with the award at the NHPCO conference in New Orleans on November 6, 2018.

Morgan began his volunteering with Joliet Area Community Hospice ten years ago, shortly after retiring from ExxonMobil. His volunteering began with weekly four-hour shifts in JACH’s 16-bed hospice home inpatient unit, where he would visit patients and respond to their needs and those of family members and staff. After talking about his photography skills, JACH asked Morgan to take photos of the grounds and at events. He soon took on the role of “official” agency photographer at the 13+ events held each year, taking over 7400 photos annually in the process. Ready to help where needed, Morgan became aware of a need in the maintenance department, and now gives at least five hours each week helping maintain JACH’s 39,000 square foot building and 15-acre property.

Morgan has volunteered at least 200 hours every year since he began with JACH, totaling an awe-inspiring 2,433 hours. His volunteering has also impacted JACH financially, as the agency has received $2,000 from ExxonMobil for each year Morgan has volunteered, totaling $20,000 donated to date in his name. Joliet Area Community Hospice is a richer agency in so many ways thanks to Morgan’s considerable contributions! Besides being a cherished volunteer and friend to JACH staff who know him, Morgan. is a devoted son to his 96-year-old father, brother, husband to Maggie, father to three daughters, and proud grandfather to one granddaughter and one grandson. Morgan resides in Joliet, Illinois.

Joliet Area Community Hospice provides compassionate, professional hospice and palliative care to over 30,000 terminally ill patients and their families since 1982. In the past two years alone, Joliet Area Community Hospice provided over $1.3 million in charity care, community bereavement programs, unreimbursed pediatric hospice and palliative care, and community outreach. We are a not-for-profit corporation, state licensed, Medicare/Medicaid certified and supported by United Way of Will and Grundy Counties. We serve patients in greater Will, Grundy, LaSalle, Livingston, and Kendall counties along with portions of Cook, DuPage and Kankakee counties.

The mission of Joliet Area Community Hospice is Real People, Real Care, Your Family.