Highmark Caring Place to Expand Services to New Facility in Cran...( Grieving children from northern Al...),Health

Grieving children from northern Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler,

Lawrence and Mercer counties to be served at new facility

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- The Highmark Caring Place, A Center for Grieving Children, Adolescents and Their Families, announced today its intention to expand its services to an additional facility in the Cranberry area, which will aim to serve children and families from communities in northern Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties. The new facility will be the Highmark Caring Place's fourth location as the center currently operates a facility at 620 Stanwix Street in downtown Pittsburgh, as well as in Erie and Central Pennsylvania.

The Caring Place services are provided free of charge to children and their families. The downtown Pittsburgh facility opened in 1997 and has since served approximately 4,500 grieving children and adults in its peer support groups, as well as several thousand more community members with its referral, education and consultation services.

"The unfortunate news is that thousands of children in our region are grieving the death of a loved one and need access to the programs that the Highmark Caring Place provides," said Kenneth R. Melani, M.D., president and CEO of Highmark Inc. "Our downtown Pittsburgh location was reaching capacity, and because we are committed to serving these children and providing them with hope, we chose to open another facility in the region."

The new Caring Place will allow the downtown Pittsburgh program to serve grieving families more quickly, as the new facility in the Cranberry area will be more convenient for approximately 20 percent of families currently accessing the downtown facility. Further, the addition of a fourth facility will allow the Caring Place to reach many other families who live too far to attend the downtown location.

"One in 20 children will have a parent die before they graduate f
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