| What
is “Ask the Expert?” |
| “Ask the Expert”
is as close to free, in-person professional help as you
can get. And our participating professionals are not just
any practitioners, but people renowned in specialized
areas of grief, loss and longing. |
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| How
do I get my questions answered? |
| Visitors to www.griefsupportservices.org
may post their questions on our “Ask the Expert”
page or ask them by telephone, during special, live one-hour
“Grief-Line” sessions on rotating topics.
Answers are generally posted within a week to ten days.
Answers are generalities based on information provided,
giving anyone who reads or hears the answers a basis to
understand and seek recovery from grief situations. They
should not be considered complete, nor a substitute for
personal and/or professional help. Also, be sure to check
our online calendar for
scheduled live Grief-Line sessions.
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| Who
may participate and are there fees to do so? |
| Anyone
who is feeling the hurt associated with the loss of someone
or something, in other words any one who grieves. This
can concern the death or illness of a person or pet but
also a variety of causes, from violence in one’s
life to substance abuse, psychological problems, relationship
issues or economic circumstances. There are no restrictions
based on income, and no fees are involved.
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| Do
all questions get answered? |
| Due to the volume of questions our
experts receive, it may not be possible to personally
answer every question. Those with the broad interest are
most likely to be answered and will be posted on Ask the
Expert within 10 days.
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| What
restrictions are there? |
| We can not post questions that attack
individuals or groups by name or through information that
could reasonably be expected to allow them to be identified.
No profanity will be permitted. We reserve the right to
edit questions to deal with harassment, offensive content
or excessive length.
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| How
often may I participate? |
| We do not restrict the frequency
of questions at this time. This policy may be re-examined
in the future.
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Can
I get receive personal, confidential help from
one of your experts? |
| Experts are free to accept
clients through in-person, telephone or e-mail relationships
as they choose. You may contact experts for private consultation,
by linking to their website or submitting requests through
their “Ask the Expert” profiles.
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Can
I get referrals to see a professional in my area
through “Ask the Expert?”
|
| Our
support community and Ask the Experts is not only coordinated
by staff of National Grief Support Services, but caring
professionals and community organizations. Visitors will
find a comprehensive listing of professionals, throughout
the United States, by visiting the Counseling
and Support section of our site
If you do not find what you are looking for, please feel
free to contact National Grief Support Services for further
assistance.
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| What
is an Expert’s “Profile”?
|
|
This is an area where each of our experts provides background
about themselves, links for further contact and other information
of use to griefsupportservices.org visitors. |
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| What
exactly are you asking me to do? |
As
a non-profit public service organization, we ask you to
spend up to 3 hours a week responding to online queries.
As we tell users they can generally expect answers within
one week, we hope you will issue responses on at least a
twice-weekly basis, but a minimum of once-a-week.
We also ask you to participate in an occasional telephone
“Grief-Line” session, on a rotating basis with
our corps of “Ask the Expert” professionals.
The telephone sessions would last one hour, and we would
not ask you to participate more than twice a year. These
sessions would be recorded and available as streaming audio
through the archives on our website. |
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| What
would I receive from you? |
We
offer significant opportunities through our Compassion Cooperative
Program. Click here and we will send you the details via
e-mail.  |
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| Are
there professional benefits? |
| Our
publicity package is ongoing and will include targeted media
packets on griefsupportservices.org
programs including “Ask the Expert.” We are
planning syndication for written materials from experts
to appear in newspapers, and on radio and television.
You will encounter questioners coming from different
geographic areas and even different cultures than you
may be used to working with. This diversity will enrich
our website and your professional experience.
We would also be happy provide more information about
submitting articles for “Grief
Matters,” a weekly e-zine that is also presented
in a Q&A format, only on a specific topic. Through
two editions of the e-zine, Personal and Professional
editions, different approaches to the same topic are covered
for different audiences. The Professional Edition provides
an excellent way to display your insights and link yourself
to a network of peers in and out of your discipline. The
Professional Edition is meant for therapists, counselors,
medical and social services professionals, clergy, funeral
industry professionals and grief service volunteers. The
topic would be presented differently in the Personal Edition.
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| Can
I use previously published material? |
| If
necessary, but only through partial quotations. This is
generally discouraged, however, because we want you to be
as responsive to specific questions as possible. You may
obviously paraphrase your own work and avoid copyright problems
with original publishers. We want to work with you to promote
generally available works through your profile page. Therefore
we ask that you do not promote those items within the answers
you give our questioners. |
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May
I accept cases that arise at www.griefsupportservices.org
for private practice or pursue them for research? |
Yes.
We will disclaim any responsibility or liability for your
professional activities. Likewise, when you begin your participation,
you will sign a waiver directly absolving National Grief
Support Services and any of its entities or other individuals
associated with the corporation from any share of liabilities
for conduct of your clinical or research activities. You
may signal your willingness to accept clients on your “Ask
the Expert” Profile submission form, which you are
free to amend. You may also indicate your desire for research
subject on that form. We do ask that you keep your profile
current.
(Design note: There should be a way for experts to automatically
update their profiles through our admin) |
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Who
holds the copyright for answers I provide
in audio and written content? |
| National
Grief Support Services holds copyrights to these materials,
with free professional use for you. We require that any
publication in which you use these materials refers readers
to our website within the text; i.e., the article must cite
www.griefsupportservices.org.
An exception is in academic publications, in which bibliographic
citation is acceptable. References should include the specific
URL from which information is cited. Any links from your
website must be direct to griefsupportservice.org, unless
special arrangements are made through National Grief Support
Services Inc. |
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| How
long am I committed to participate? |
| We
ask that you accept a one-year minimum commitment to “Ask
the Expert.” We hope you will continue to enjoy the
exposure and professional enrichment the experience provides. |
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