Many funeral homes do not have professional emotional support for the families of the deceased. While it is important to offer hugs and words of encouragement and maybe some brochures on the grieving process, being able to offer support of the more professional kind is even better. What places a funeral home (such as Fluehr Funeral Home) above its competitors is offering something more than what the competitors have, and having a licensed grief counselor is something your competitors probably do not have. Here are three other good reasons for putting a grief counselor on your payroll.  

A Funeral Home Is the First Place Grieving Families Turn To

When a grieving family has to make funeral arrangements, the first place they turn to for help is your funeral home. They are not only looking for help planning and arranging the showing of the body and funeral services, but they are also emotionally distraught and have to find their way through their emotions to talk to you about the arrangements. A grief counselor can be present to assist them initially, and then provide additional support at cost if surviving members need, choose and ask for it.

The Grief Counselor Can Be on Call 24/7

As surviving family members work their way through their emotions, they may have difficulties at the most inconvenient hours. That is where your funeral home's grief counselor comes in. He or she can be on call to help these people talk through what is troubling them, make sense of what is happening to them, and even provide words of encouragement and support in the wee hours of the morning when grieving people cannot sleep. Since suicide is often contemplated after a loved one passes and the person contemplating it is severely depressed, the grief counselor can be of help in preventing a tragic second loss to the same family.

The Grief Counselor Establishes a Communication Bridge 

The grief counselor can establish a communication bridge between your clients and you and provide a level of customer service and care your (living) clients would not get anywhere else. In grief, the counselor makes that emotional connection for the surviving members, one that tells them that your funeral home truly cares about their loss and cares about how they feel. Because of the grief counselor's prior work with the families, they are able to entrust their deceased to you and trust you in a time when it may be very difficult for them to trust how they feel and/or trust the grieving process. 

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