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Research Guides

Family Care Office Resource Centre

Grief

The Family Care Office has books about grief in our library.  

 

Resources within the University of Toronto  

  • Faculty and staff can access the Employee and Family Assistance Program, a free confidential information, counselling and referral service. The service is provided by LifeWorks. Immediate access to professional counsellors is available by phone at 1-855-597-2110. If you need face-to-face counselling, an appointment will be scheduled. You can also arrange for telephone or e-counselling. 
  • Mental health support for students is available through U of T’s Health & Wellness mental health care service. You can get help with clarifying issues, understanding and managing your emotions, relationships, and responses, and you can get support in dealing with challenges effectively. Students can also call U of T Telus Health Student Support (formerly U of T My SSP) at 1-844-451-9700. Outside of North America, call 001-416-380-6578 for mental health and counselling services in 146 languages. 
  • Students: You may find you need academic accommodation and/or a leave of absence. Undergraduate students should contact their registrar’s office by email. Graduate students should contact their department graduate coordinator. 
  • The Grief Support Sharing Circle is an informal mutual support group, led by clinicians and campus chaplains, that provides support for students who have experienced the death of a significant person, as well as students experiencing anticipatory grief. 
  • Multi-Faith Campus Chaplains offer spiritual care in times of grief and perform rites of passage including funerals and memorials. 

 
Resources within the Community 

  • Bereaved Families of Ontario provides a safe, non-judgmental environment for individuals to discuss their experiences and learn about grief with others who have been there. They provide a chance to talk, in a confidential setting about how the death of a loved one affects your life. 
  • Helping You Grieve: BFO - Toronto is a local charitable organization that seeks to inspire hope and transformation in people who are grieving the death of a loved one. 
  • Children and Youth Grief Network: The network advocates for educational opportunities and support services that will benefit children and youth who are grieving the dying or the death of someone they care about. 
  • Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto has an adult bereavement group for those who have lost a loved one to cancer and a Kids Greive Too virtual support group.  
  • Pregnancy and Infant Loss Network: The PAIL Network is there to help with free group and individual peer support offered to families across Ontario.  
  • Survivors of Suicide Loss Program: The Toronto Distress Centre's professionally developed traumatic loss support program is a safe space in which survivors of suicide loss can identify/explore/clarify their thoughts as well as feelings and begin to navigate the aftermath of suicide loss with peer-to-peer support. 

 

Additional Resources 

  • MyGrief.ca: an online resource to help people work through their grief from the comfort of their own home, at their own pace. It was developed by family members who’ve “been there,” and grief experts to complement existing community resources and help address the lack of grief services, particularly in rural and remote areas. 
  • Grief and Children: An article from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry on how parents can be aware of normal childhood responses to a death in the family, as well as signs when a child is having difficulty coping with grief. 
  • Talking with Kids and Teens about Illness, Dying and Death: KidsGrief.ca is a free online resource that helps parents support their children when someone in their life is dying or has died. It equips parents with the words and confidence needed to help children grieve life’s losses in healthy ways. 
  • Supporting a Loved One Through Pregnancy Loss: Sinai Health Magazine article on supporting a loved one who has experienced a pregnancy loss 
  • The Compassionate Friends of Canada is a non-profit peer support organization for grieving parents who have lost a child. 
  • Baby’s Breath is a research, advocacy and peer-to-peer bereavement support network to assist families who have faced the tragic loss of an infant. 
  • Seasons Centre for Grieving Children provides peer-to-peer support for children between the ages of 5 and 24 years who are grieving the death of an immediate family member 

 
Legal & Government Information  

  • What To Do When Someone Dies from the Government of Ontario – Answers to common questions about what to do, and what support is available, when a loved one dies in Ontario. 
  • What To Do When Someone Dies from the Government of Canada - Answers to common questions about what to do, and what support is available, when a loved one dies in Canada.
  • See Wills & Estates