OACFP Launches Action for Mental Health: Be Brave

Initiative designed to practically and proactively support bereavement professionals

TORONTO, May 21, 2020 /CNW/ - The Ontario Association of Cemetery and Funeral Professionals (OACFP) today announced the launch of its Action for Mental Health: Be Brave initiative, a five-part video series, bolstered by practical and proactive tips, on establishing and maintaining self-care.  This employee program is designed to promote positive mental health and support cemetery and funeral professionals as they manage through significantly heightened compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma while continuing to support families under difficult COVID-19 circumstances and beyond.

"In response to a growing industry need, OACFP had already committed to more proactively supporting the mental health of its members in its three-year strategic plan, developed last year," said Steven Reynolds, president, OACFP board of directors. 

"The Be Brave initiative is a mental health toolkit we are proud to make accessible to our members," says Mr. Reynolds. "We are increasingly exposed to high stress and high trauma work environments that take a toll on the whole person.  OACFP wanted to proactively provide practical platforms for relief and assistance."

The initiative, led by newly appointed OACFP Education Coordinator, Kate McMaster, was stimulated by the COVID-19 Crisis Response Fund grant opportunity offered by the US-based Funeral Service Foundation, (FSF) the charitable arm of the National Funeral Directors Association.  Designed to be flexible, the fund provides grants for immediate needs within funeral service including emergency response to significant loss of life; grants to organizations providing services and resources to families with unresolved and complicated grief due to loss during this crisis; and grants for other important needs as funeral service continues to serve families during this rapidly evolving crisis. FSF's Canadian Trustee, Allan Cole remarked, "I am very pleased to see a Canadian organization benefit directly from the FSF COVID-19 Crisis Response Fund." 

"OACFP's Be Brave mental health initiative is precisely the kind of vanguard programming we hoped the COVID-19 Crisis Grant would inspire," noted Lee Wiensch, CFRE, Executive Director, Funeral Service Foundation.

The Be Brave videos will be posted to the OACFP's website link Action for Mental Health, on a daily basis, one-a-day for five consecutive days, beginning on Monday, May 25, 2020 and will be supported by social media postings to Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OACFP and Twitter @theOACFP.

About OACFP
Founded in 1913, the Ontario Association of Cemetery and Funeral Professionals (OACFP) www.OACFP.com is a unified Association of bereavement sector professionals providing a support network of education and resources to its members. Follow us at: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OACFP and on Twitter @theOACFP.

About the Funeral Service Foundation – FuneralServiceFoundation.org
Since 1945, the Funeral Service Foundation has served as the profession's philanthropic voice. As the charitable arm of the National Funeral Directors Association since 1997, the Foundation receives operational support from NFDA and donors across the profession to help advance its mission to support funeral service in building meaningful relationships with the families and the communities it serves.

SOURCE Ontario Association of Cemetery and Funeral Professionals

Media Contact: Caroline Spivak, Profile Communications Corp., [email protected], 416.371.9740