Griefworks is a community-based program designed to address loss experienced by children and adolescents up to 18 years of age. Services include:
- Activity-based therapy for children and youth.
- Structured therapy for individuals experiencing traumatic and/or complicated grief.
- Therapeutic groups for similarly aged children who have experienced the death of a loved one.
- Caregiver support and education.
- Community consultation with professionals involved in supporting the child.
Download the CMHA Windsor-Essex County Branch Griefworks Program Flyer.
Eligibility
Children and youth (up to 18 years of age) who have experienced a recent loss through death and are residents of Windsor and Essex County.
How To Access The Service
Self-referral, caregivers, community agencies, and school boards, etc. Referrals accepted by telephone (519) 973-4435.
Funding
Community fundraised dollars.
Service Hours
The regular business hours are 8:30am to 4:30pm at the agency Monday to Friday.
After-hours appointments available (Monday – Thursday) and can be discussed with assigned program therapist.
In the News
No wait list for ‘forgotten grievers’: How CMHA Windsor-Essex is helping youth cope with death
Michelle Maluske
CTV Windsor News Reporter
The local branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association has hired a second ‘Grief Works’ therapist even though the program receives no government funding.
“We can’t have grieving young people waiting for six months,” therapist Carolyn Jenner-Dupuis told CTV News. “I can’t imagine what that six months would have felt like for someone like Hannah.”
Jenner-Dupuis is referring to Hannah Eveland-Carey, 21, who she treated for two years starting in 2018.
“Hannah is exactly the reason I do my job,” said Jenner-Dupuis. “She’s not that broken, destroyed young woman that she was when she came to see me.”
Resources
Kids Help Phone – 1-800-668-6868 or Text 686868
Kidsgiref.ca
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)
The Dr. Bob Kemp Hospice (Hamilton, ON) Grief Text Line or Online Chat Support
Their goal is to provide free, accessible, short-term peer grief support for children, youth, parents/caregivers, and adults who have experienced a death from a pet or someone in their lives.
This service is not a mental health crisis or distress service and will not provide mental health therapy.
The Children and Youth Grief Network have compiled a summary of the resources that are available on their website, including the following:
- Handbook for Supporters (in French and English)
- Grief and Death Education Toolkits (in French and English)
- Children’s Grief Awareness Family Day Toolkit
- Video series on Supporting Grieving Children and Youth at School
- Tip sheet on Informing Children of a Death