Walter Mikac, author of To Have and To Hold, written in memory of his wife and two daughters following the Port Arthur massacre, will be one of the major presenters at a conference in Brisbane later this month.
The conference, dealing with many aspects of loss, is being organised by the University of Queensland's Centre for Primary Health Care in collaboration with Griffith University.
Mr Mikac is one of more than a dozen speakers from around Australia. Another is Professor Beverley Raphael, formerly head of psychiatry at the University of Queensland, now Director, Mental Health, New South Wales, and recognised as an international expert on loss and grief.
Also addressing the conference will be Bob Anderson, chairman of the Queensland Reconciliation Council, Melbourne psychiatrist Dr Warwick Middleton and young people from the Boystown LinkUp program.
Mr Mikac and several others will be talking about the grief and trauma associated with sudden death, natural death and suicide, but the conference takes a much broader look at loss than just loss of life.
One of the main organisers is Dr Judith Murray, of the Centre for Primary Health Care's loss and grief unit, who said loss was an unavoidable part of life for everyone.
She said losing a job, relationship breakdowns, school failure and bullying, natural disasters, moving and migration, illness, aging, business failure and cultural dislocation were among the many situations involving loss.
"Loss is a universal concept which touches us all at some point. We are constantly interacting with people who are experiencing loss, often at the same time as trying to deal with our own losses," Dr Murray said.
The sense of loss for many people stemmed from a feeling of helplessness, that they had lost control over their world and their destiny as they perceived it to be.
"This is happening now in rural communities and we saw the result at the election where people's anger at their grief and powerlessness was reflected in rebuke of sitting members of Parliament. This sense of loss can affect not just individuals but whole communities," she said.
"We hope this conference will help people to recognise and understand loss, and so help them to deal with it with greater compassion, insight, humility and support."
Dr Murray said already registrations for the conference included people from education, emergency services, the health sector, police, funeral services, crime victims, retirement homes, the church and other support groups, as well as interested members of the public.
She hoped the conference would improve networking between such groups, foster contacts among them and facilitate a more holistic and coordinated approach to dealing with loss.
Dr Murray said the unit in which she worked was already working towards this goal by setting up data bases, providing resources, organising workshops and arranging speakers for the benefit of communities throughout Queensland and northern New South Wales.
This month's conference will also be used to launch related postgraduate courses starting next year at the University of Queensland and Griffith University.
Loss: Unity in Diversity is the title of the conference which will run from 8.30am to 5.30pm on Friday, July 31, at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Southbank.
For further information, contact Dr Judith Murray (telephone 3240 7221).
