Days like these are the reason this work exists: sitting with people through the moments that are hardest to name. Every month, we hear from people who are using Help Texts to get through something hard. A few of the messages we've received recently:

I am grateful for your kindness and support. It is a very difficult time for me and your messages give me strength to continue living.

Thank you for providing this service to those in need. It's an amazing service that has helped tremendously. I always looked forward to your encouraging words.

All of the messages that I receive help me get through to stay on task and to ask myself, 'what would my parent say' in this moment.

That is amazing! I am ever so grateful! I truly enjoy the text messages as I am struggling daily with the loss of the best friend and love of my life. Thank you!

Thank you for helping me look at my grief that way.

Ohhhhh, this should help thanks so much! 🙏🏻☺️ I appreciate every message received. Thank you!

Our newest research was published on April 28th in BMC Public Health, one of the most respected open-access public health journals in the world. This study has been years in the making, and seeing it in print is a moment we want to celebrate with all of you, because in many ways, it belongs to our community.

The research looked at how grievers rated their experience with text-based grief support compared to other types of support they had received, and the results were striking. Subscribers expressed strong satisfaction with the availability, accessibility, and helpfulness of text-based support. Across nearly every measure, text messaging was rated higher than self-help resources, social support, and GP support.

Now there's real real evidence to show what we've long known to be true: text-based grief support is not a lesser substitute for other forms of care. Grief-informed texting fills genuine gaps and reaches people at moments and in places where other support simply cannot.

That evidence shows up in practice, too. When Oceanside Hospice Society needed to reach bereaved families scattered across Vancouver Island's remote communities, they found their small part-time team couldn't deliver consistent grief support manually. Since launching Help Texts in July 2025, they've seen month-over-month enrollment growth and a 94.6% active rate, with 100% of surveyed families finding the content helpful. Read the full case study.

Reaching more people, and reaching them well, takes more hands. We are so pleased to welcome Jared Rubenstein to our growing team of expert contributors. Jared brings a depth of knowledge and compassion to this work that we know our subscribers will feel in every message shaped by his expertise. Learn more about Jared. We are so grateful to have him with us.

As Help Texts grows, we need people who can match our mission with the operational depth to scale it. I'm thrilled to welcome Steve Harstad as our new Chief Revenue Officer.

Steve brings decades of healthcare growth leadership across payer, provider, employer, and value-based care markets. He has spent his career building disciplined, scalable go-to-market engines, the kind that turn a great mission into lasting, measurable impact.

We're also thrilled to welcome Jessica Correa as our Growth Marketing Lead. Jessica brings more than eight years of experience in both direct-to-consumer and B2B marketing, having worked with global brands across North America, Southeast Asia, and Europe. She knows how to build the infrastructure that makes growth sustainable: functional funnels, thoughtful acquisition, and content marketing.

June holds a lot. If any of this resonated — whether you're grieving, supporting someone who is, or just trying to show up better for the people you love — we're glad you're here.

With gratitude,

Emma Payne

CEO, Help Texts

If you know someone who might appreciate our monthly dose of good news, please invite them to subscribe. And as always, remember that you can visit our website to buy gift subscriptions.

I'm so grateful to have Thanatologists on my team. Melissa Lunardini, PhD, MA, MBA, FT and Rah Adams, MS, CT lead our research, subscriber support, and client care work, and help us make the end of life experience safer and more manageable for the rest of us. I'm also so grateful to work with Thanatologists around the world, who are expert contributors at Help Texts and help us craft personalized text messages for our subscribers. Shout outs to Jillian Blueford, PhD, LPC, NCC, CT, FT, Rachelle Bensoussan M.A., CT, OAMHP., Cole Imperi, Andrew J. Vitale, C.T., Stephanie Heitkemper, and Pamela Gabbay, EdD., FT.

If you hadn't heard of Thanatology until now, here's your primer.

Thanatology is the study of death, dying, and bereavement, focused on understanding how these experiences affect us psychologically, socially, culturally, biologically, and spiritually.

And here's a little more detail about each area, which I find helpful to refer back to.

• 🧠 Psychological - How grief rewires our brains and changes our identity
• 👥 Social - The way communities respond to death and support the bereaved
• 🌍 Cultural - Rituals, beliefs, and practices around death across different societies
• 🫀 Biological - The physical toll of grief on our bodies and immune systems
• ✨ Spiritual - Questions of meaning, afterlife, and transcendence during loss

About Help Texts

Help Texts is the world's leading clinically sound, scalable, bereavement intervention. We deliver affordable, multilingual support globally via text message for all of life's toughest moments. With extraordinary acceptability (95%) and 6-month retention (90%) rates, Help Texts' light-weight solution makes it easy for employers, providers, payers, and others to improve health and community outcomes, while also realizing significant cost savings for those in their care.

Life can be hard. Getting support shouldn't have to be. 💙 Help Texts is proud to be delivering personalized, expert grief and mental health support in 62 countries and 29 languages. All year long.

Through all of this work, over all of these years, I have learned that there will never be anything as powerful as in-person grief support.

And this is my humble expert opinion.

As I supported grieving people across all types of losses, it was clear to me that technology could never provide the help that I was able to! It would have been offensive to me for anyone to try to claim otherwise.

And then one day, someone did.

Enter Emma Payne in 2018, who reached out to me on LinkedIn. She was an entrepreneur with her own traumatic grief experience, who wanted to tell me about a text-based service she’d developed to support people who are grieving.

As you can imagine, I was really skeptical. You could say that my protective "mama bear" came out, as I openly scoffed at the idea that people could feel supported by simple text messages. I knew this because I had decades of firsthand experience, sitting one-on-one with people in their darkest moments.

I listened and politely & professionally declined—well, actually, I said, “I’ll think about it.” But in my mind, that conversation was over and I went about my day.

At that time, I was in charge of a large comprehensive bereavement program in San Diego, CA. My days were filled with bereavement phone calls, new family orientations, camper interviews, addressing school crises, running groups, supporting staff and volunteers, program operations, along with seemingly all the other duties that were required to keep our operations available for those in need. (If you know, you know)

Perhaps it was fate.
Or perfect timing.

After that conversation with Emma, many of my calls and in-person orientations that day were filled with people who had various barriers that made it impossible for them to access the care our services provided.

In one of my calls, there was a language barrier—if you've ever had to use the "language line" provided through hospice or other healthcare organizations, you know how "less than ideal" those can be for providing meaningful connection. There is always hope that a caring tone and intentions come through when put into someone else's hands (words), and you also hope that the support will resonate with them.

Next up was a family visit with a Spanish-speaking family of four who had children across a wide developmental range. The father of this family had died by suicide, and they wanted to attend support groups. In addition to English as a second language, Mom had a barely functioning car and could only afford to drive once per week, as they lived a significant distance from the grief center.

She was faced with a difficult choice. She either needed to select which two children could attend groups (their ages ranged from 4-17) or, as a family, not get any group support.

This feeling as a provider is the most awful feeling in the world—to see people in desperate need of help and at the same time realize that your ability to support them is extremely limited. I think all bereavement professionals have had to experience something like this, and it hurts on an emotional level to know that you can't do more to help.

My next appointment was with a couple whose newborn baby died from SIDS. The mother very much wanted support, but the father was checked out and refused to participate in any groups or "therapy," as he called it. We all know that mom and dad could each have benefited from some kind of support.

These back-to-back-to-back barriers frustrated me and also made me think of my call with Emma. My personal and professional desire to be able to provide some level of help to these people made me wonder about her text messaging platform.

But in my mind, nothing could compete with in-person support. Especially not a text.

I remember my inner dialogue going something like this as I started to get REALLY honest with myself, realizing that maybe I also had to check my own ego:

Honest Me to Fragile Ego Me: “You just had three examples of people who can't access your services. Although you'd like to think you're the be-all and end-all for grieving people in San Diego, you're apparently not.”

"Although you'd like to think that in-person care is what people need the most, sometimes it's not.”

“Although you like to think that technology can't support grieving people, you actually don't know.”

“Maybe, just maybe, you’re making assumptions based on your own biases and fear that maybe your services will no longer be needed if people opt in to text messaging, or that maybe technology will hurt them in some way - when you actually don't know if either of these might happen.”

And it made me ask myself: “Who am I serving with this type of restricted thinking, or more importantly, who am I NOT serving, because of this thinking?”

Which led to another conversation with Emma, that went something like this:

Honest Me to Emma: “I want to share my concerns. I am worried about the content. I am worried about what would happen if people text in. I want to understand who will be responding. I am worried about a crisis scenario. I am worried that a text may cause distress.”

“Even though I am worried about texting, I am also worried about the people I met today who can't use our services. I can't help but think about what will happen to them if they don't get any support. I can imagine that they will be worse off by receiving no support than if they at least got some support via texts.”

“So I’d be willing to try a pilot program with you. And need to see what families will see, so I want to try it myself.”

From the very beginning, I witnessed firsthand the profound and positive impact that a simple text message can have on a grieving person's journey.

Not only did my first test users love receiving support to their phones, but it didn't take away from the other ways I could provide help. In fact, it enriched my services and impact in many ways. Over time, we saw more people accessing our support, and we expanded our reach because we could still serve people who were limited by things like language, transportation, finances, childcare, etc.

Help Texts (then called Grief Coach) quickly became my favorite service offering (Selfishly, also because I was helping more people without adding to my workload). Help Texts literally freed me up to do the more personal work.

Fast forward from Skeptic to Believer.

My experience with this type of support was so powerful that I wanted to go deeper, in order to help even more people through their grief. Today, I’m the Chief Clinical Officer at Help Texts. Our research team sits on an unimaginable amount of data (quantitative and qualitative), where people from around the world are sharing, and proving, how impactful grief-informed texting is.

The daily barrage of messages of thanks that we receive are mind-blowing and heart-warming. The texts are providing meaningful, timely, and most importantly, personal resonance. When we send out surveys, they return the most beautiful and heartfelt responses about how these simple text messages have quite literally kept their broken souls tethered to hope.

As evidence of why I believe, here are some actual examples of what real people have said about the grief-informed texting service:

"The texts are discreet and sent directly to me and have really saved me some days feeling alone and guilt with my grief as some days have been so bad then a text pops up which makes you feel instantly better and not alone and .. normal! Also the hints and tips and videos have been extremely helpful too. Of all the things that GP friends and family have recommended this text service has been by far the best and most supportive to me and my family. I honestly believe I'd be in a darker place if it wasn't for these. Saved my life ❤️"

....

"I feel more relaxed after receiving a text — it reminds me to focus on myself and do self-care (like cuddle my cat, drink tea, play a game, or book an appointment)."

....

"Everyday I grieve and these amazing messages help me so much on the darkest of my days. It's helping me take time for my thoughts and think more clearly since Jorge passed away. I go back to the messages too. Even when I'm doing everyday things, receiving a message like now comforts me. I can't thank you enough 🥰 "

....

"Everything has been helpful to me, it helps to read the texts and the one about writing the letter to my son really helped me to deal with this. I told him things in the letter I couldn't bring myself to say after he passed thank you all for your support"

....

"I appreciate the consistent flow of communication with the gentle messages to help understand what you're going through and how you are feeling. You don't feel as alone and also want to make sure your loved ones aren't forgotten. Even though it was a one way communication I felt very held and that someone was thinking of me and that they cared. I don't want the messages to stop :( grief can make you feel so alone."

....

"It seems like the texts validate exactly what I'm feeling and it's like whoever sends the text knows. I appreciate this service as I am not seeing anyone professionally for my grief"

....

"Some days when you are really down and just don't know what to do with yourself a random text will pop up reminding you that it's ok and that you aren't alone and that you will get through it. It's nice to just read something positive without feeling the pressure to respond as it's not a family member or friend etc."

....

"Your message is giving me a courage to look forward thanks"

....

I started as a skeptic, and I would understand why you'd be one too, but in the end, it’s the grievers themselves who have won me over.

They have told me, time and time again, that grief-informed texting works, that it is needed, and that it has resonated for them in ways that other support couldn’t. Their reflections are honest and heartfelt, and their gratitude has shown me that - even though at first I couldn't believe it - there is a vital role that technology can play in doing at least some of what we do.

I have learned to still firmly believe that human support will always be needed, but also to acknowledge that technology, used well, can provide a benefit as another powerful modality.

Grief-informed texting is simply another support modality that people can opt into. As you know, when we are grieving, we need access to ALL of the support options – not just the ones that we, as providers, believe people need.

Signed,

A skeptic turned believer

Melissa Lunardini, Ph.D., MA, MBA, FT
Chief Clinical Officer at Help Texts

About Help Texts

Help Texts is the world's leading clinically sound, scalable, bereavement intervention. We deliver affordable, multilingual support globally via text message for all of life's toughest moments. With extraordinary acceptability (95%) and 6-month retention (90%) rates, Help Texts' light-weight solution makes it easy for employers, providers, payers, and others to improve health and community outcomes, while also realizing significant cost savings for those in their care.

Life can be hard. Getting support shouldn't have to be. 💙 Help Texts is proud to be delivering personalized, expert grief and mental health support in 59 countries and 28 languages. All year long.

Father's Day after a loss can be one of the hardest days of the year. You may already be feeling the weight that starts to build days or even weeks before. Grief has a rhythm, and big dates like this often bring grief closer to the surface.

If you are grieving a parent or a father figure, or you are a father grieving a child, this day can be especially tender. You may scroll past photos of others with their dads or their kids and feel something complicated, glad that they still get this day with their people, and sad that you do not, at least not in the way you used to. Holding these competing feelings is so normal.

Grief professionals recommend that going into a day like Father's Day with a plan is far better than going in without one. Below are three ways you can plan to honor your loved one and your grief on Father's Day.

1. Start your day with something gentle

Set the tone before the world sets it for you. Light a candle in honor of your person. Say a quiet prayer. Sit by their photo. Step outside and watch the sun come up.

Starting the day this way helps prevent what can feel like an emotional ambush later — when a song, a stranger's laugh, or a child running to their dad might catch you off guard. It also lets you set an intention for the day: that you are choosing to hold your love for them, on purpose, alongside your grief.

2. Weave them into your day

You do not have to dedicate the whole day to grief. You can simply bring them into it.

This could be through food, music, colors, places, or the events that you might choose to engage in. You might wear a red shirt if their favorite color was red, you might get chocolate chip ice cream if that was their favorite flavor, you might stroll through the park that they liked or share a memory or story about a past Father's Day with them.

These tiny choices are not silly. They are how you keep them close. Their essence, their loves, the small things that were theirs — they get to live in your day with you.

3. End the day with reflection

Before bed, take a few quiet minutes to share something with them. You can think it, speak it, pray it, or write it down.

What would you tell them about your life right now? What have you learned since they have been gone? What are you proud of? What are you still working on? How have you changed?

You can also just say, "I miss you. I love you. I am still here."

Whatever you share, you are doing something powerful: you are staying in relationship with someone you love. Love is present tense, but love never dies.

A note on the days that follow

There is something many people do not warn you about: the grief hangover.

A grief hangover is the deep physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that can hit in the days following a holiday, birthday, or anniversary. You may feel foggy, drained, or unusually weepy for days. That is not a setback. It is your body recovering from carrying the heaviness of that day. Be gentle with yourself for a few days.

Staying connected is still possible

Death changes a relationship. It does not have to end it.

Staying connected to your person after loss is possible, it just takes a little intentionality and a little creativity. Days like Father's Day are not something to "get through." They are days to honor what you carry: a love that did not go anywhere, and a grief that exists because that love is real and everpresent.

You can hold both love and grief. You already are. We are thinking of you on this Father's Day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it normal to feel grief days before Father's Day?

Yes. So normal. Many grievers feel the weight of a big day building up days or even weeks beforehand. Naming what is happening — "I am anxious leading up to Father's Day, this is grief" — can take some of the confusion out of it.

What if I do not want to do anything to mark the day?

That is okay too. There is no right way. Skipping the rituals, staying home, sleeping in — all valid choices. Having a plan is for you, not for others.

What if I am with people who do not understand?

A short script can help. "Today is hard for me because I am missing my [dad/child]. I might be quieter than usual." You do not owe anyone a long explanation.

How do I prepare for the grief hangover?

Clear your schedule the next day or two if you can. Plan for gentle movement, rest, and fewer commitments. Now, some people prefer to jump back into work and their typical pace of life and that is okay too. Do what feels right for you.

Does this get easier over time?

For most people, yes, though "easier" does not mean it stops hurting. The pain often becomes more familiar, more workable, more predictable. The first few of these days are usually the hardest.

If you need support

If you want more guidance on how to be with someone else who is struggling today, gift them grief support with Help Texts. Help Texts sends gentle private text messages to people who are grieving, for $9.99 a month. No apps, no talking, no appointments. Just something in your pocket that reminds you that you are not alone in this.

Unlike receiving an email, opening an app, or scrolling through socials, text messages feel good. A single text message from a friend, colleague or family member creates a little dopamine boost that makes us feel cared for, which in turn increases motivation.

Here at Help Texts we see - every day - how powerful text messaging can be. We send millions of texts to people around the world who are feeling lonely, grieving a loved one, feeling burned out, or just looking for a boost.

Based on that experience, here are six suggestions for text messages you can send right now, to someone in your life who could use a little dopamine lift.

The Gratitude Text

Hi, Sara. I'm so grateful for your friendship. Thank you for having my back yesterday, and being ready to listen.

The Memory Text

Hi, Mom. I was just remembering how much we laughed that time when Jason was trying to assemble the BBQ. That memory will always be special to me.

The Thoughtful Gift Text

Hi, Steven. I just left some beer and snacks on your doorstep. When you're ready I'd love to come and sit on the porch and share a drink with you. No rush. I'm here anytime.

The Photo Text

Hi, Maria. I found this photo on my phone, from our trip with Carlos last year. You must be missing him right now, but maybe this photo will bring a smile to your face. Just look at how much he loved you. We'll have smiles like this again, I promise.

The Music Text

Hi, Lindsay. You probably don't know this, but this song always makes me think of you, and brings a smile to my face. Whenever I hear it, I think about our trip to Sonoma, and that late night bike ride home. Listen and enjoy.

The Specific Offer of Help Text

Hi, Tom. Can I take Rover with me when I go to the park this afternoon? I know you need to stay off your feet right now, but I would love to have your pup with me for some fresh air, and will bring him back happy & tired.

If there's someone in your life who could use a little boost, take a few minutes and send them a text. If you'd like more suggestions or would like to receive our texts, check out Help Texts - because sometimes, a message at just the right moment can give you the dopamine lift and motivation you need to lift your spirits.

Oceanside Hospice Society serves families spread across Vancouver Island, a geography that makes in-person bereavement support difficult to deliver consistently. With families often dispersed across remote communities, the team needed something that could travel with families, rather than requiring families to travel to receive support.

In addition to geography challenges, Oceanside Hospice Society relies on a small part-time team available to care for bereaved families and caregivers across all of Oceanside. They found it hard to deliver In-person check-ins, phone follow-ups, and printed mailers to all the families looking for support. Like many other hospice teams, Oceanside staff recognized that grief doesn’t wait for business hours, and doesn’t care how far someone lives from the nearest support group. Recognizing that they couldn’t deliver care manually to all the families in their community, Executive Director, Mandy Levesque, began looking for ways her small team could deliver more care, without sacrificing quality or human connection.

The solution

In July 2025, Oceanside Hospice Society launched bereavement support through Help Texts, an expert-written text messaging service that delivers expert, clinically sound grief support, personalized to each family’s loss type, relationship, cause of death, and time since loss.

Mandy said:

Help Texts stood out as a natural fit for Oceanside. We love that their tool is built specifically for grief support, is accessible by text message from anywhere, and includes built in tips and date reminders for friends and family who want to support their grieving loved ones. While some of our other programs and services are delivered over a shorter timeframe, the ability to offer Help Texts support for 12 months is a significant benefit to our clients and our organization.

The results

Strong retention and accelerating growth.

Since launching in July 2025, Oceanside Hospice has seen consistent month-over-month enrollment growth, with a 94.6% active rate.

Here's what a few of Oceanside's grieving family members said about receiving text support

100% of respondents found Help Texts’ content helpful.

Just what I need to hear. Plus I love that they are personalized. It’s nice to see my name and my husband’s name.

— Melanie, Grieving widow

I found the positive reinforcement about knowing what I’m going through is all very ‘normal’ in the grieving process.

— Cindy, Grieving sister

They have helped me understand more about my grieving process and what to expect as time goes by. Most importantly it’s taught me what I was never taught as a child — that it’s okay to talk about it. Thank you very much for the text messages.

— Kenn, Grieving widower

It has helped me deal with the overwhelming pain that I didn’t want to face. It reminds me to do healing work which is very much needed. I know if I stuff it down and avoid it that it hits me like a freight train.

— Janet, Grieving mother

It’s nice to feel supported randomly and unexpectedly — and I forward them to another family member.

— Margot, Grieving mother-in-law

Why it works

The science behind text-based grief support

Help Texts is built on a simple insight: grief support works best when it’s easy to receive. For families already managing the weight of loss, low friction is everything.

Our published hospice research shows a 95% satisfaction rate, with even higher ratings among men and people over 65, two populations historically underserved by traditional bereavement programs. 86% of subscribers continue receiving texts for a full year, indicating not just initial uptake but sustained engagement over time.

Help Texts helps Oceanside deliver consistent outreach to bereaved families, while meaningfully lightening the administrative load for their team.

Here are 5 things to consider when adding supporters to your Grief Coach subscription:

1. Think of who has already shown up for you

Can you think of someone in your life who has truly been there for you? If there’s someone who’s consistently been a great supporter, but who seems to be distant now that you’re grieving, perhaps they’re unsure how to support you in this phase of your life and could use some support themselves.

2. Think of people who have said, “Let me know if you need anything!”

You’ve probably heard this a million times at this point, but when we’re grieving, we often don’t know what to ask for. We’re really not sure what we need. Now’s a great time to take these people up on their offer of support and Grief Coach can be a great tool for making that happen.

3. Ask them

Sometimes the reality is that the people we wish would show up for us, don’t. When considering who to add as a supporter, it is important to talk to the people you’re considering, and ask them if they are willing to receive these messages, and if they think they might be helpful. Here’s an example of an email or text you could send to people you’re hoping will sign on as your supporters:

Hi _____. I’ve signed up for a service called Grief Coach that delivers personalized grief support via short text messages two times a week, and I’m finding the messages comforting and useful. I can include up to 4 other people in the subscription who want to support me this year. I wonder if you'd be willing to receive suggestions and reminders for how to support me? I know that many people find it hard to know what to say and do when someone is grieving so maybe Grief Coach can help both of us. Let me know if I can add you. I’d be very grateful for your support.

4. Add them as a supporter!

Once you’ve established a good idea of who you want to add as a supporter, edit your profile to add them! Be sure to list their phone number so that we can begin sending them messages right away.

5. If they unsubscribe, you can add someone else

Life happens, people change, and sometimes grief changes the relationships we hold. That’s okay. The good news is that if one of your supporters unsubscribes, or if you decide someone else would be a better fit for the role, you can change these people at any time.

We hope these suggestions will make it easier for you to invite people to support you this year. Unfortunately nearly everyone who has experienced grief has also felt disappointed by some of the people they hoped would support them. The truth is that people’s fear and discomfort can keep them away, even though they care for us very much. This is why we designed Grief Coach to include support for you, as well as tips and suggestions for friends and family who want to help but may not be sure how.

Grief is hard, but if you can find a few people who want to support you this year and add them to your subscription, it will be a little bit easier.

During the end-of-life planning phase, we can give grief permission to exist. Giving a voice to the grief that is present can create a sacred space where feelings and thoughts can be shared, absorbed, and in some cases released. For some people this means using their final months to engage in the “making” of memory, legacy, and meaning, so that grief can be acknowledged every step of the way.

Some ideas that many people find healing and helpful as they integrate grief into end-of-life planning are to:

• Think forward. What are important dates or milestones that will occur for your family and friends? Consider writing a note or pre-arranging flowers to be delivered so that your presence is felt during big life moments. Examples: a child graduating from high school, receiving a congratulations card, in your handwriting, with a few words of inspiration. Or a spouse, receiving flowers on their first wedding anniversary as a bereaved widow/widower with a note on how to still love you while also giving permission for them to move forward.
• Think backward. Consider having your life’s story recorded. Leaving bits of your life’s story so that future generations can know you and learn from your wisdom can be an incredible gift to mourners. Programs like StoryCorps or Lastly.com help guide you through the process of telling your life’s story. You may also enlist in your family and friends to help capture your life’s story.
• Think present. For some, this is the time to mend and nurture the relationships around you. In Dr. Ira Byock’s book, The Four Things that Matter Most, he explains that four simple phrases “Please forgive me,” “I forgive you,” “Thank you,” and “I love you” have enormous power to resolve interpersonal disconnections and/or strengthen existing connections. Reflect on who in your life may benefit from having a conversation that includes one of these phrases.
• Think and plan for the long haul of grief. Consider gifting a few Grief Coach subscriptions to family or friends so that they can receive expert, thoughtful, personalized grief support via text message, all year long.
• Think about practical ways to support your loved ones. This could look like purchasing prepared meal deliveries, arranging a maid service for a few months, or even pre-paying for some therapy sessions that can be rendered at any time.
• Think about grief resources that your loved ones can access. Finding local and online grief counseling books, groups, camps, and conferences can encourage them to seek out additional support during their grief experience.

The end-of-life planning process is, just that, a process. It requires time, thoughtfulness, attention, and support. We hope these suggestions can be a starting point to help guide your own personal reflections on what attuning to grief looks like for you and the ones you care about.

Co-authored by Melissa Lunardini, MA, MBA, FT, Director of Community Operations for Grief Coach & Cindy N., PhD, LICSW, Founder, Sagebrush Crossing, SPC

Grief Coach is thrilled to announce our newest affiliate partner, Bevival. Caren Martineau, the founder of Bevival, came across Grief Coach online, “When I first learned about a new text-based service offering grief support, I simply couldn’t imagine a digital solution would adequately serve those in any state of grief. Over the course of 6 months, my doubt dissolved into an appreciation for Grief Coach. Grief Coach’s content and tone of voice feels personal and very human. It’s hard to believe these texts are not sent by someone intimately familiar with my personal situation. I definitely appreciate the appropriateness of Grief Coach's text-based support.”

Bevival is part of a global movement aimed at increasing death literacy for the living. “Our mission is to do death differently, that includes end of life, dying, and grief." Bevival has created a platform where culture, stories, wisdom, art, and workshops are curated to be a space for healing. Here at Grief Coach, we share in Bevival’s mission of expanding death and grief literacy on a global scale.

Bevival patrons can now receive a discount on Grief Coach subscriptions, giving them immediate access to personalized, year-long texts for grievers and tips and date reminders for their supporters too. You can use the Bevival discount to sign up for a Grief Coach subscription for yourself, or as a sympathy gift for a grieving loved one.

Want to join our fast-growing team of affiliates? Reach out to Affiliate Manager, Melissa Lunardini to learn more.

In May Time magazine reported on the devastating toll COVID-19 has taken on Filipino nurses in the U.S. According to National Nurses United, as of April 2021, 24 percent of the nurses they surveyed who died from COVID-19 complications were Filipino; but, Filipinos only make up 4 percent of the total registered nurses in the country. The CDC now recognizes that every COVID-19 death leaves an average of 9 friends and family members bereaved, and so we find ourselves - as a nation - with an obligation to support the healthcare workers who have spent the last year and a half supporting us, as well as their bereaved friends and family members.

Grief Coach is committed to making sure that nobody has to grieve alone, and adding new language support for Tagalog speakers is another step towards realizing that goal. We're grateful to healthcare leaders at Covenant Care and Nathan Adelson Hospice for being among the first to point out the urgency of supporting Filipino healthcare workers, and encouraging us to prioritize our Tagalog service. They recognized the need before Time Magazine reported on it, and helped us move quickly to meet that need.

Grief Coach is thrilled to announce our newest affiliate partner, Black Dress Consulting. We first met Founder & CEO, Rachel Donnelly in February, thanks to an introduction from Vanessa Laughlin at Banister Advisors.

Why do we love our partnership with Rachel so much? Lots of reasons, but one of the things that resonated right away was her intentionality and care when it comes to supporting grieving families. We also realized she lives minutes away from our very own Client Care Manager, Zeena Regis, so a new friendship was born, along with a new business relationship. Check out the IG Live chat that Zeena & Rachel recorded in June.

What should you know about Rachel? She is on a mission to help families handle the business of death so that families can grieve peacefully, “Our goal is to provide solutions for life’s transitions while also integrating what’s important to you and your family and one of those solutions is Grief Coach.” says Rachel. “I recommend Grief Coach to clients to help with their grief journey. There is no barrier to receiving support, like a waiting time or significant cost, and that is invaluable.”

Black Dress Consulting clients can now receive a discount on Grief Coach subscriptions, giving them immediate access to personalized, year-long texts for grievers and tips and date reminders for their supporters too. Click here to use the Black Dress Consulting discount to sign up for a Grief Coach subscription for yourself, or as a sympathy gift for a grieving loved one.

Want to join our fast-growing team of affiliates? Reach out to our affiliate manager, Melissa, at melissa@grief.coach to learn more.

Grief Coach already has specialized channels for teenagers, young widows & widowers, people grieving COVID deaths, and many others, but until now we haven't had a text series that focuses on the unique grief journey of caregivers. Meeting and working with Lucinda made it clear how urgently this support is needed. She knows first hand how hard it can be to be a millennial caregiver and put it so eloquently when she said, "caregivers of all ages lose so much when their person gets sick. They lose freedom and hope, as well as friendships and activities. Then when their parent or grandparent dies, they’re left alone with their grief. Our new text channel sends lots of support to those caregivers, when they need it most.”

In addition to working with Lucinda, we gained lots of inspiration for our caregiver channel from our work with Alexandra Drane and ARCHANGELS. The work they're doing to support caregivers is thoughtful, intentional and game-changing, and it was an honor to run a pilot with them this Spring, delivering grief support for caregivers.

Together with I-ALLY, the Grief Coach content team worked hard to create messages that speak to the unique journey of caregivers who often experience financial pressure, strained relationships and feelings of guilt, in addition to their grief.

For example, a grieving caregiver can receive a text like this one:

Hi, Dahlia. If you find yourself struggling to prioritize your own self-care, remember that you are just as important and worthy of care as Robert was while you cared for him. Caring for yourself may feel like an indulgence, but self-care is critical for all grievers, and an important part of your healing journey. You've been through a lot.

A friend supporting that grieving caregiver can receive a text like this one:

Hi, Betty. While Mandy was caring for Mike she may also have been grieving the life she had before, and the future she imagined they would have together. At the same time she probably found surprising moments of laughter or peace. Remind her that the same can be true now. She can grieve Mike but still be surprised by moments of laughter or peace.

Grief Coach has always been about providing practical, thoughtful, digestible grief support to as many people as possible. Our new caregiver series is yet another way we can do that.

Grief Coach is thrilled to announce our newest affiliate partner, Be Present Care. We first met Eldercare Coach and Consultant, Stefanie Elkins, at the 2020 Live Well, Die Well Tour, hosted by Death by Design Podcaster, Kimberly Paul.

According to Stefanie “I just felt compelled to connect with Emma and the Grief Coach mission, after hearing her speak on a panel at Live Well Die Well." Stefanie has a passion for guiding families through all aspects of caregiving and end-of-life conversations and planning. She explains that “grief is a normal, real, and significant component in dealing with loss and death. I think Grief Coach is a useful resource for my clients because it provides support to grievers that are helpful, specialized, and thoughtful. I am so honored to be a Grief Coach partner.”

Be Present Care clients can now receive a discount on Grief Coach subscriptions, giving them immediate access to personalized, year-long texts for grievers and tips and date reminders for their supporters too. Click here to use the Be Present Care discount to sign up for a Grief Coach subscription for yourself, or as a sympathy gift for a grieving loved one.

Want to join our fast-growing team of affiliates? Reach out to Affiliate Manager, Melissa Lunardini to learn more.

As a way to answer these questions and more, I’m delighted to share that we’ve recently launched the ability to run surveys within the Grief Coach platform, thanks to some fantastic work by our lead engineer, Adrian. Earlier this month we conducted our first survey in collaboration with Hospice of the Western Reserve, one of our partner organizations whose bereavement team offers Grief Coach subscriptions to support family members of patients who have recently passed away. We sent a three-question survey to each of the Grief Coach subscribers from Hospice of the Western Reserve.

Within moments, we received our first responses, and within the first 24 hours, we had nearly a 50% response rate. (User researchers and hospice staff working on CAHPS and other surveys will likely appreciate how happy those response times and response rate made me.)

The results were strong: 96% of respondents said they find the text messages helpful and many expressed their heartfelt appreciation for this form of grief support. People shared how the messages spoke to what they needed to hear, offering support and encouragement at just the right moments. A number of people also said that they share the messages with friends and family, including loved ones who want to better understand the experience of grief and others who are themselves grieving. One person described the messages as "little nuggets of truth that are accepting, supportive, and encouraging."

If you are a Grief Coach partner and would like to work together on a survey to send to your Grief Coach subscribers, please reach out to our team. Our survey tool is versatile and we look forward to continuing to learn a lot through it.

And THEN my inbox exploded.

Calls came in from across the US, from organizations searching for ways to support their employees and patients. I had calls from nursing homes, hospices and even police departments, each with caring, innovative HR and management teams looking for new ways to support staff who were overwhelmed and witnessing far too much loss.

The stories and losses were heartbreaking to hear first-hand, but knowing that I'd built something that could help these organizations felt good. I have worked hard to build Grief Coach, and to refine our text-messaging service to provide truly thoughtful, customized, year-long support to people who are grieving. Having that work recognized by both the media and prospective clients has left my heart as full as my inbox, and I'm so grateful to these journalists and organizations for being excited about how Grief Coach can help them support more - many more - people.

I'm determined to get back to blogging this Summer. I have so much news to share. Stay tuned for new client, affiliate and partnership news as Grief Coach continues to grow.

As they've grown, Metropolitan has remained committed to people and kindness, and one of the people at the heart of this culture was Brady Page, the company's VP, Sales & Marketing. Brady was well known for bringing energy, passion and a love of people to every corner of the company. He exuded the kindness that sits at the heart of Metro's culture, so when he died suddenly in November, his loss was deeply felt, not only by his partner and children, but also by the people he worked side-by-side with every day. Metropolitan's leadership team wanted to honor Brady, by bringing the team together and creating ways for them to connect and also receive support.

Katherine Nielsen, one of Brady's mentees at Metropolitan, took the lead on hosting a virtual Celebration of Life that would allow Brady's family and coworkers to come together, despite the pandemic. She worked with Gathering Us to host the memorial and, afterwards, felt that she'd done something for Brady that echoed the way he valued the people in his life.

"Our leadership team believes that it's OK to bring your humanity to work. They also understand that grief isn't just a 2-week process and that there are business wins too, when employees are supported and therefore better able to function effectively at work," Katherine said. "Here we understand that the world can feel different after someone dies. We wanted to find meaningful, longer-term ways to support our team, so when I heard about Grief Coach's personalized, year-long, text support program I reached out right away."

And I'm so glad they did. We quickly set up a package of Grief Coach subscriptions so that Metro employees were able to sign up for personalized, year-long, grief support immediately following Brady's Celebration of Life. We're now texting tips and suggestions, at least twice a week, to grieving employees as well as to the friends and family who want to support them.

Working with Metropolitan makes me hopeful that more employers will follow their lead and provide additional support when someone dies. Just last week New York Life announced an expansion of their company bereavement benefit. They now provide 15 days' PTO for grieving employees, far more than the average of only 3 days' PTO offered by US employers. I'm grateful to companies like Metropolitan and New York Life, who understand the value of employee wellness. Bereavement benefits like theirs recognize the impact of grief in the workplace, and help to provide the caring environments and policies that are so important when people are returning to work after a loss.

Under the leadership of President and CEO Bill Finn, Hospice of the Western Reserve is known for implementing new strategies that reflect today’s busy lifestyles and the range of ways people communicate. This includes expanding options for providing grief support to families after a death. The new service is being offered in partnership with Grief Coach, a Seattle-based company that is the first in North America to deliver grief support via text message.

"More than ever, it is critical that we find innovative new ways to care for people after a loss," says Finn. "I'm proud that our bereavement team will now be offering personalized, text-based support to the many hospice families we care for each year. This is in addition to the services we currently provide, such as individual counseling, a variety of grief support groups, literature, newsletters and online resources. Knowing that every one of our bereaved family members now has the opportunity to receive support every week, all year long, is wonderful. Grief Coach also creates a brand new communication and outreach channel for us at a time that many of our more traditional ways of providing in-person grief support are on hold due to the COVID crisis."

Hospice of the Western Reserve is a recognized leader in the provision of hospice care in the U.S. Their 15-person bereavement team provides grief support services for over 6,000 hospice families every year, as well as for the community at large. Last week, the team received training in how to introduce the new texting service to their clients, with each Bereavement Coordinator also invited to sign up so they could experience the texts firsthand.

Diane Snyder Cowan has been the Director of the Western Reserve Grief Services of Hospice of the Western Reserve since 2001. She oversees the agency’s bereavement programs and also leads the Bereavement Professionals community of the National Council of Hospice and Palliative Professionals. Diane first learned about Grief Coach in December, and was immediately impressed by the carefully crafted, thoughtful and personal texts being delivered to people grieving suicide, cancer, overdose, stillbirth and many other deaths.

"I've been doing this work for a long time," Diane said, "and I know the challenges that hospices and other organizations face in needing to support thousands of grieving families. We don't always know if people open the mailers we send them, and with COVID limitations, our in-person visits and support groups are temporarily suspended. It’s wonderful that these caring, well-timed personal messages can now go out to all of our families, and that they can add in their friends and family, too. Grief Coach gives our Bereavement Coordinators a simple, beautiful way to ensure that none of our family members have to grieve alone."

Emma Payne, Grief Coach's Founder and CEO, is thrilled that her company is working with the team at Hospice of the Western Reserve. "I’m honored to be working with this experienced, compassionate team,” she says. “Bereavement Coordinators work so hard to provide care and support after a loss, so I love that Grief Coach makes it easy for them to connect with grieving families, and to reach them more often. We sent texts at least twice a week, for 13 months, because grief lasts a long time.”

Next month Finn, Snyder-Cowan and their team will extend the Grief Coach service to five other hospices in Ohio who participate as members of the Care Solutions Network of Ohio.

About Hospice of the Western Reserve

Hospice of the Western Reserve provides palliative and end-of-life care, caregiver support, and bereavement services throughout Northern Ohio. In celebration of the individual worth of each life, we strive to relieve suffering, enhance comfort, promote quality of life, foster choice in end- of-life care, and support effective grieving. To learn more, visit Hospice of the Western Reserve.

About Grief Coach

Grief Coach sends personalized text messages to help people after someone dies. Grieving people receive resources and tips all year long to help them feel less alone. If they have friends and family who want to help but aren't sure how, Grief Coach texts them suggestions too. Grief Coach also works with nonprofits, hospices, tissue banks, employers, and others who provide bereavement support. To learn more, visit Grief Coach.

For more information, please contact:

Laurie Henrichsen
Media-Public Relations Manager
Hospice of the Western Reserve
lhenrichsen@hospicewr.org
216-701-1768

Emma Payne
Founder & CEO
Grief Coach PBC
emma@grief.coach
206-949-9121

Sarah came across Grief Coach on Instagram, and immediately signed up. For the last year she's been receiving our texts every few days, with messages especially curated for the loss of her Dad. Grief Coach subscriptions also include year-long texts for friends and family who want to help. Sarah added her husband to her subscription, and right away he started receiving texts too, with tips and reminders for how he could support her.

Earlier this month I received this note from Sarah, that captures exactly why I created Grief Coach.

"Grief Coach has helped me tremendously. When my texts started I felt a sense of comfort right away. I was also able to add my husband to the service so that he could better understand what I was going through and how to help me. We were able to have open conversations about grief. I realized that I wasn't in this alone, and that all of my feelings were valid. When other people forgot that I was grieving, Grief Coach helped me understand this journey I'm on, and that it was okay to be feeling all the emotions I was feeling. Receiving articles and videos was also so helpful, especially because grief isn't widely talked about. I am thankful a service like this exists. Grief Coach has really helped me in my journey."

I'm so grateful when subscribers like Sarah take the time to share their feedback, and am glad that our texts for both her and her husband have helped to make her journey a little lighter this year.

I'm thrilled to announce that she's also the new Lead Content Partner at Grief Coach. Megan and I have created a new text channel which will bring Megan's world-renowned grief support straight to your phones. All year long.

I've been a big fan of Megan's work for years, and love the way she advocates for a revolution in how we discuss loss - personally, professionally, and as a wider community. Her animated video about "How to Help a Grieving Friend" has been viewed over 40 million times and she’s a featured expert in the PBS documentary Speaking Grief. We're now sharing her animation with Grief Coach subscribers, along with lots of other tips, suggestions and reminders that Megan has crafted especially for Grief Coach subscribers, and for the friends and family who love them.

Megan and I know first hand, that friends and family often aren't sure what to say or do when you're grieving. Our new text series can help. Every subscription contains personalized, year-long texts for grievers AND tips and suggestions for supporters as well. Because nobody should ever have to grieve alone.

Welcome Megan.