COURSE INFORMATION
The CE course in the Diverse Populations Specialist Certification Program curriculum focused on LGBTQ+ Communities covers a comprehensive overview and review of forms of grief, including losing a romantic partner and discrimination, experienced by grievers who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, nonbinary, or another sexual orientation. It then explores the ways that LGBTQ+ grievers differ in coping with grief, based on their preferences and circumstances. Students learn how to support clients from LGBTQ+ communities through their grief. This Grief Support for LGBTQ+ Communities course includes readings/study from the assigned textbooks as well as a video lecture and presentation.
Course Code: GC 760. Contact hours of education = 60.
Instructor/Course Author: Dr. Elaine Dispo-Rendón, Ph.D., GC-C, PGSS-C
Link to Resume: access here
TEXTBOOK: There are two (2) required textbooks for this course.
1. Gay Widowers: Life After the Death of a Partner 1st Edition.Michael Shernoff. Routledge. 1997.
ISBN-10: 1560231059
ISBN-13: 978-1560231059 Paper back edition.
Link to Purchase on Amazon.com: Access Here
2. Lesbian Widows: Invisible Grief.Vicky Whipple. Routledge. 2006.
ISBN-10: 1560233311
ISBN-13: 978-1560233312 Paper back edition.
Link to Purchase on Amazon.com: Access Here
3. Grief Diversity. Elaine J. Dispo-Rendón, Ph.D., from Cope with Hope Deal to Heal. ANAK KO, 2024. ISBN -13 978-1-7364549-8-5 Electronic edition.
Link to Purchase on ANAK KO: Access Here
IMPORTANT: When viewing the ANAK KO purchase link scroll down until you see the “SPECIAL SECTIONS”, there you will find the textbook, and its ISBN. At the bottom of the Special Sections there are ordering instructions. You can contact your instructor, Dr. Elaine Dispo-Rendón, if you have any issuing ordering this text.
ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS: This course contains additional optional assignments and a required video lecture.
TIME FRAME: You are allotted two years from the date of enrollment, to complete all of the four (4) courses in the Grief Support Group Certified Specialist continuing education program. There are no set time-frames, other than the two year allotted time. If you do not complete the courses within the two-year time-frame, you will be removed from the course and an “incomplete” will be recorded for you in our records. Also, if you would like to complete the courses after this two-year expiration time, you would need to register and pay the course tuition fee again.
GRADING: You must achieve a passing score of at least 70% to complete this course and receive the 60 hours of awarded continuing education credit. There are no letter grades assigned. You will receive notice of your total % score. Those who score below the minimum of 70% will be contacted by the American Academy of Grief Counseling and options for completing additional course work to achieve a passing score, will be presented.
BOARD APPROVALS: The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is an Approved Provider for Continuing Education by the South Carolina Professional Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists and Psycho-Educational Specialists licensing board, Provider # 4637.
AIHCP is an approved provider of continuing education by the American Institute of Health Care Professionals (The Provider) is approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses, Provider number # CEP 15595 for 60 Contact Hours. Access information
This course, which is approved by the Florida State Board Of Nursing (CE Provider # 50-11975) also has the following Board of Nursing Approvals, for 60 contact hours of CE
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Arkansas Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Georgia Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the South Carolina Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Professional Registered Nurses. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the New Mexico Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
Course Refund & AIHCP Policies: access here
ONLINE CLASSROOM RESOURCES AND TOOLS
* Examination Access: there is link to take you right to the online examination program where you can print out your examination and work with it. All examinations are formatted as “open book” tests. When you are ready, you can access the exam program at anytime and click in your responses to the questions. Full information is provided in the online classrooms.
* Student Resource Center: there is a link for access to a web page “Student Resource Center.” The Resource Center provides for easy access to all of our policies/procedures and additional information regarding applying for certification. We also have many links to many outside reference sites, such as online libraries that you may freely access.
* Online Evaluation: there is a link in the classroom where you may access the course evaluation. All students completing a course, must, without exception, complete the course evaluation.
* Faculty Access Information: you will have access to your instructor’s online resume/biography, as well as your instructor’s specific contact information.
* Additional Learning Materials: some faculty have prepared additional “readings” and /or brief lecture notes to enhance your experience. All of these are available in the online classrooms.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Analyze examples of gay widower grief experiences
- Analyze examples of lesbian widow grief experiences
- Describe anticipated grief process of terminal same-sex partners
- Describe bereavement of partners who were not sexually intimate
- Describe bereavement of companions who were not romantic partners at the time of their death
- Identify common emotions and behaviors of gay widowers who experienced AIDS- and HIV-related losses
- Identify common emotions and behaviors of gay widowers who experienced non-AIDS- and non-HIV-related losses
- Discuss whether preparation can help with terminal illness and lingering death
- Assess grief reactions from sudden death
- Explain how gay widowers react to their support systems
- Explain the significance of gay widowers’ wedding bands during grief
- Identify metaphors that gay widowers have used to describe their grief
- Explain examples of gay widowers’ and lesbian widows’ grief experiences
- Define and explain examples of disenfranchised grief in the LGBTQ+ community
- Assess the symptoms of complicated bereavement
- Identify characteristics of same-sex partner bereavement
- Define and explain examples of LGBTQ+ vicarious grief and trauma
- Define and explain examples of gender angels
- Define and explain examples of gender ghosts
- Explain the importance of resilience in LGBTQ+ grief
- Identify barriers to grief support for LGBTQ+ communities
- Describe the meaning behind Trans Day of Remembrance
- Explain how LGBTQ+ communities have religious or spiritual support
- Identify other demographic groups who may offer support
- Identify disadvantages, in addition to grief, for LGBTQ+ racial minorities
- Explain meaning-making for transgender communities
- Explain parent-child dynamics during transgender children’s transition
- Explain different family dynamics of LGBTQ+ communities
- Identify the only words that translate to “non-binary” in other languages
- Explain the effectiveness of journaling during the grieving process
- Describe differences in grief support between husbands of widows and lesbian partners of widows
- Explain the effectiveness of grief recovery support groups and partners for gay widowers
- Analyze examples of LGBTQ+ disclosure of their sexual orientation and romantic relationships to their families
- Assess the need for lesbian bereavement support groups
- Assess the need for literature for lesbian widows
- Assess the need for research on aging LGBTQ+ grievers
COURSE CONTENT:
A brief abstract of content:
- Gay men grief
- Lesbian grief
- Bisexual grief
- Transgender grief
- Queer community grief
- Non-binary grief
- LGBT, LGBTQ and LGBTQ+
- AIDS- and HIV-related losses
- Non-AIDS- and non-HIV-related losses
- Terminal illness and lingering death
- Sudden death
- Disenfranchised grief
- Complicated bereavement
- Same-sex partner bereavement
- Gay widower
- Lesbian widows
- Terminal partner grief
- Vicarious grief and trauma
- Gender angels
- Gender ghosts
- Resilience in LGBTQ+ grief
- Barriers to grief support for LGBTQ+ communities
- Trans Day of Remembrance
- Religious or spiritual grief support for LGBTQ+
- Aging LGBTQ+ racial minorities
- Interpretive phenomenological analysis of meaning-making for transgender males
- Parent-child dynamics during transgender child’s transition process
- Families of LGBTQ+ communities
- Translations for “non-binary” in other languages
- Power of journaling through grief
- Difference in grief support between husbands of widows and lesbian partners of widows
- Grief recovery support groups and partners for gay widowers
- Need for lesbian bereavement support groups
- Need for literature for lesbian widows
- Need for research on aging LGBTQ+ grievers