GriefCare for Families is a self-guided program. You can communicate with our team at the Center for Complicated Grief. They can help you use GriefCare and help you share topics and questions with other bereaved parents. However, GriefCare does not provide in-person grief support or grief therapy. You may prefer to work with someone in person, either one-on-one or in a group. You might be feeling that you need more help dealing with the loss. There’s no shame in that. You can get help by contacting one of the resources listed below. You might also be facing psychological or other problems that are
difficult to deal with. We hope you will connect with the appropriate support.
There are many other ways you can get support for yourself and your children. We suggest you start by going to our website at the Center for Complicated Grief and the website for the New York Life Foundation. What’s Your Grief (WYG) is a very useful website with a lot of excellent information, suggestions and activities for grieving parents and children. You can also contact the National Alliance for Grieving Children. Each of these websites has information about resources. If you think you need a grief support group, grief counseling or grief therapy or if you would like a mental health consultation, the New York Life Foundation has some excellent partners. You can also contact a local practitioner or check one of these websites.
Signs that your child might need some extra help
- Your child talks about wanting to hurt her or himself or talks about ending their life.
- Your child seems very sad, withdrawn, not themselves or uninterested in friends and is unable to set these feelings aside at all for months at a time.
- Your child is not going to school, doing their homework or paying unusually little attention to their cleanliness or basic health-related behaviors.
- Your child is engaging in risky behaviors like using drugs or alcohol, driving or doing other things recklessly or breaking the law.
- Your child seems emotionally numb or unable to acknowledge the death – like they are disconnected from the reality.
- If you are worried about your child for any reason, you should pay attention to that and get some help deciding if something is wrong.
Signs that you might need more help for yourself
- You are feeling “stuck” in your grief. It feels like it has been too long and you are not seeing a way forward.
- You are feeling very down or depressed most of the day, having a lot of anxiety or panic attacks, having flashbacks that are interrupting your activities and making it hard to concentrate or sleep.
- You have had mental health problems in the past and you are feeling the same way now.
- You are using alcohol or drugs in a way that seems unhealthy to you and/or other people you trust.
- Your sleep is very disturbed for a long time.
- You are feeling poorly physically for an extended period of time.
- People who you trust are telling you that you need to move on or seem frustrated and impatient with you. They are not necessarily right, but if you trust them, you might want to see someone who can help you decide.
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