A New Text-Based Approach to Delivering Quality Bereavement Care for Donor Families (Conference Poster)
Dr. Melissa Lunardini, Chief Clinical Officer, Help Texts (2024). A New Text-Based Approach to Delivering Quality Bereavement Care for Donor Families. American Association of Tissue Banks. https://www.aatb.org/categories/annual-meetingProfessional and community support during bereavement is in short supply and can be difficult to access (Aoun et al., 2020). Only a minority of grievers are extremely satisfied with the support they receive (Cacciatore et al., 2021). Researchers and bereavement professionals are seeking innovative low-cost, high-reach forms of support to meet grievers’ needs (Supiano et al., 2021; Zuelke et al., 2021). This presentation will report on grievers’ perceptions of the acceptability and helpfulness of Help Texts, an innovative, ongoing, expert, text-based grief support service aligned with a public health approach to bereavement care. The messages, grounded in contemporary models of grief and coping, provide support, information, and encourage engagement in adaptive coping behaviors. Participants in the evaluation were bereaved family members who received Help Texts as a benefit from their donor and tissue bank organization. Participants in the evaluation were bereaved family members over the age of 18, located across the US, who received grief-informed text support as part of their aftercare services. A one-time cross-sectional survey was administered to (N=187). Eighty-seven percent of subscribers were female, 10% male, and 3% preferred not to say. Approximately 50% of subscribers were between the ages of 45-64, 43% <45 years old, and 7% were aged 65+. The most reported relationship to the deceased was the death of a son or daughter (37%), spousal loss (33%), death of a parent (18%), and 12% identified other relationships. Nearly 53% of subscribers reported their loss as sudden and unexpected with the top three causes of death listed as other illness (20%), drug or alcohol related (13%), and accident (13%). Based on program administrative data and survey responses, the 6-month program retention rate was 93% and 85% at 12 months. Among subscribers who met inclusion criteria for and completed a brief evaluation (N=186, response rate = 62%), 94% rated the program as “Moderately Helpful” or “Very helpful” and 75% rated it as contributing “A great deal” or “Considerably” to their sense of being supported in their grief. Approximately 45% of grievers signed up in the first two months after their loss, and 66% within the first 6 months. In their written feedback, most respondents expressed their deep appreciation for the program (e.g., “Thanks for being there for me, I feel less alone”) or listed something they liked or found helpful (e.g., “I am learning to have options in my pain”). These findings suggest that Help Texts, a new and innovative grief-informed texting program is an accessible form of bereavement care in acute grief and that bereaved family members find the service to be acceptable, helpful, and supportive in their grief. This preliminary data suggests that Help Texts may be a promising low-cost and effective addition to existing Aftercare programs to more effectively meet the bereavement needs of donor families.