WinterSpring’s grief and loss support programs will be integrated into La Clinica’s health and wellness classes it offers patients and the wider community by summer.
Leaders of the Rogue Valley nonprofit, in operation since 1989, approached La Clinica leaders last year as they sought stability for the small organization and to place it in a traditional healthcare setting. The boards of both organizations recently approved WinterSpring’s integration into La Clinica.
“La Clinica will benefit from the deep expertise, wisdom, and program design that WinterSpring holds in the work of grief and loss,” said CEO Brenda Johnson. “We see the importance of this work in the community and believe we can help carry it wholeheartedly long into the future. Ongoing grief and loss services are often absent from traditional healthcare models, and it’s time we rectify that.”
“We view this as a particularly innovative integration, one that will provide WinterSpring programs with the infrastructure they have so desperately needed while centering grief-informed care and education in the traditional healthcare model, where it has been missing for so long,” said WinterSpring Board President Janine Twining. “This type of partnership is not only innovative and timely, it is absolutely necessary.”
La Clinica plans to continue all WinterSpring programs and hopes to add new programs to support people’s continuing recovery from the 2020 Almeda fires, she noted. It also hopes to expand courses available in Spanish.
Leaders’ goal is to complete the transition by June. WinterSpring will continue to use its name in connection with grief loss and support programs in the community.
About WinterSpring
WinterSpring is a community-based bereavement-services organization serving Jackson County since 1989. To carry out its mission, it offers compassionate phone support and resources for grieving people. This often results in people attending a peer-to-peer bereavement support group facilitated by trained volunteers using the companioning model of Dr. Alan Wolfelt. The groups include a children’s program, school-based teen grief support, and a variety of adult groups based on the type of loss, such as spouse/partner loss, bereaved parents and sudden death. It’s through sharing stories and feeling connected to others suffering similar losses that people find healing and glean the wisdom that comes from better understanding their own experience of loss. WinterSpring also provides training, information and education to professionals and other community members on how to help others during times of grief and loss.
WinterSpring peer support groups are offered at no charge. The death of a loved one is not only emotionally overwhelming, it can be financially devastating as well. WinterSpring wants nothing to be a barrier to finding vital support at a time of great need.
About La Clinica
La Clinica offers wellness-focused medical, dental, mental health, and substance use disorder care at 26 sites: six primary health centers, an Acute Care Clinic, East Medford Dental Clinic, 17 school-based centers, and via a mobile center. Although its mission focuses on providing access to low-income people, La Clinica is open to everyone. La Clinica was founded in 1989 to serve the primary and preventive care needs of migrant and seasonal farm workers in Jackson County. In 2001, in response to an increasing need for affordable primary health, La Clinica expanded its scope to serve every member of the community. All services are offered regardless of a patient’s ability to pay, and on a sliding-scale basis for the uninsured and low income.
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