Kelly McDyre, executive director of the Plymouth-based nonprofit Faith's Lodge, has launched a new benefit employers can offer to help employees returning to work after a child's death.
McDyre, citing research, said grieving parents function at 30 percent of capacity for the first 30 days and slightly more than 60 percent for the first six months after a child's death or after their child's "medically complex diagnosis."
"The average economic loss for an employer — and this is just related to grieving parents not parents with sick kids — is just under $50,000," McDyre said. "What we try to remind employers is you've got a good person, you want to retain a valuable employee and you want to mitigate that economic impact."
Faith's Lodge, founded in 2007, serves parents and families coping with a child's death or complex diagnosis. It offers weekend programs for families at a lodge on 72 acres near Danbury, Wis.
"We support them in a peaceful setting that allows them to reflect on the past, rebuild their strength for the present and then build hope for the future," McDyre said.
To ease the transition back to work, Faith's Lodge last fall launched a program called "Hope Works Here."
The program offers resources and referrals to employers and the affected employee when a crisis occurs, McDyre said.
Through Hope Works Here, a licensed mental health professional serving as a transition coach meets with the employee before he or she returns to work, McDyre said. The transition coach also speaks to the employer and colleagues about interacting with the employee when he or she returns and follows up with the employee some time after he or she is back at work.
