Bereavement Resources
Losing a loved one is heartbreaking. And to make it even more challenging, each person grieves in a different way on a timeline that sometimes seems to double back on itself.
If you are the one in need of comfort as you mourn, or if you want to support someone who has lost a loved one, the following resources will help.
WHN Expert TIP – Download the Guide: Nemours Children’s Hospital has a free downloadable Bereavement Resource Guide: A Handbook for Families After the Loss of a Child.
Note: Due to Covid-19, support groups may be meeting online.
Professional Resources
Center for Loss & Life Transition – The Center for Loss & Life Transition, led by death educator and grief counselor Dr. Alan Wolfelt, is an organization dedicated to helping people who are grieving and those who care for them.
Coalition to Support Grieving Students – The Coalition to Support Grieving Students is a unique collaboration of the leading professional organizations representing classroom educators, principals, assistant principals, superintendents, school board members, and central office staff, student support personnel, and other school professionals who have come together with a common conviction: grieving students need the support and care of the school community.
Hand to Hold® – Hand to Hold helps families before, during, and after a NICU stay and infant loss by providing powerful resources for the whole family, and most importantly, one-on-one mentoring from someone who has been there.
Hospice Foundation of America (HFA) – HFA is a trusted source of information on end of life, hospice care and grief. On the HFA site is information about living with advanced life-limiting illness, options for care and helpful resources for caregivers.
National Alliance for Grieving Children – The National Alliance for Grieving Children (NAGC) is a nonprofit organization that raises awareness about the needs of children and teens who are grieving a death and provides education and resources for anyone who supports them.
Share Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support – Share’s mission is to serve those whose lives are touched by the tragic death of a baby through pregnancy loss, stillbirth or in the first few months of life.
The Dougy Center – The Dougy Center provides support in a safe place where children, teens, young adults, and their families grieving a death can share their experiences. We provide support and training locally, nationally, and internationally to individuals and organizations seeking to assist children in grief.
The National Bereavement Resource Guide – New York Life and Eluna have partnered to provide the National Bereavement Resource Guide, a compilation of state and local resources for people experiencing loss. The National Bereavement Resource Guide is an ongoing resource and continually updated.
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) – TAPS provides comfort, care and resources to all those grieving the death of a military loved one. Since 1994, TAPS has provided comfort and hope 24/7 through a national peer support network and connection to grief resources, all at no cost to surviving families and loved ones.
Grief Support Groups
Alive Alone – Alive Alone is an organization for the education and charitable purposes to benefit bereaved parents, whose only child or all children are deceased, by providing a self-help network and publications to promote communication and healing, to assist in resolving their grief, and a means to reinvest their lives for a positive future.
Alliance of Hope –The Alliance of Hope provides healing and compassionate support to help people survive suicide loss, and go beyond “just surviving,” to lead meaningful and productive lives.
Bereaved Parents of the USA — Bereaved Parents of the USA offers support, understanding, encouragement and hope to fellow bereaved parents, siblings and grandparents after the death of their loved one.
Compassionate Friends – Compassionate Friends provides highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family.
COPE – COPE is a foundation dedicated to providing emotional support to individuals and families who are struggling to cope with life after loss. It offers programs for parents, siblings and teens.
Modern Loss – Modern Loss is a place to share the unspeakably taboo, unbelievably hilarious, and unexpectedly beautiful terrain of navigating your life after a death.
Parents of Murdered Children (POMC) – POMC provides the on-going emotional support needed to help parents and other survivors facilitate the reconstruction of a “new life” and to promote a healthy resolution.
The Dinner Party – The Dinner Party is a space where people in their 20s and 30s who have experienced the loss of a parent, sibling, partner, child, other close family member, or close friend meet on an ongoing basis to talk about loss and life after.
The Sisterhood of Widows – The Sisterhood of Widows is an online grief support site for widows.
Grief Camps for Children
Camp Courage – Camp Courage is a weekend bereavement camp with the mission to help children and their families heal from losing a significant person in their lives, while providing a safe place to express themselves through their healing experience.
Camp Erin – Camp Erin is the largest national bereavement program for youth grieving the death of a significant person in their lives.
Comfort Zone Camp – Comfort Zone Camp is a nonprofit 501(c)3 bereavement organization that transforms the lives of children who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling, or primary caregiver. Our programs are free of charge and include confidence-building activities and age-based support groups that break the emotional isolation grief often brings.
For more resources, visit the Bereavement Resource Library at the Center for Organ Recovery & Education website and The Masters in Counseling website for a list of 115 helpful websites on grief and bereavement.
Photo Credit: Andrew Martin