Sudden Death, Grief, and Trauma Info on the Web

The Higgins and Langley Memorial Awards in Swiftwater Rescue honor outstanding achievement in the technical rescue discipline of swiftwater and flood rescue. They are not heroism awards, but rather recognize preparedness, teamwork, and a job well done, sometimes under extreme conditions, where training is vital to the success of rescue missions, as well as the safety of rescue personnel.

The awards were established in 1993 by members of the Swiftwater Rescue Committee of the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) in honor of Earl Higgins, a writer and filmmaker who lost his life in 1980 while rescuing a child who was swept down the flood-swollen Los Angeles River, and Jeffrey Langley, a Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighter-paramedic and swiftwater rescue pioneer, who lost his life in a helicopter incident in 1993.

There is a special page on the Higgins & Langley Memorial and Education Fund website that features a series of outstanding information brochures about sudden death grief and trauma. The brochures were produced by the Royal Hospitals Trauma Advisory Council in Ireland:

Sudden Death - Grief and Trauma Brochures

http://higginsandlangley.org/death_grief_information.shtml

The brochures will no longer be available on the Royal Hospitals website, as the Trauma Advisory Council is ending in August. We received permission to feature the brochures on our website - they are among the best resources I've found online that focus on sudden death grief and trauma.

The information is broken into three groups - for families who have suffered a sudden death loss, for professionals dealing with these families, and for schools that have children in attendance who are grieving. The brochures are also divided by age group, which is very helpful.

Eventually, this information will be featured on the new Drowning Support Network web site.