Close Alert Banner
Skip to Content

Hospital

ResearchFoundation

Text Resize

Regular Large X-Large

Colour Contrast

Default High

Accessible formats and communication supports are available, please contact accessibility@cheo.on.ca

View Our Accessibility Plan

CareersContact UsWebsite FeedbackMyChart
FR
Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario Logo
Contact Us
  • Visiting CHEO
    • Accessibility
    • Amenities
    • Cold and flu season
    • COVID-19
    • Emergency care
    • Family and caregiver supports
    • Family-Centred Rounds
    • Find your doctor
    • Health Records
    • Maps and locations
    • Parking
    • Pay your bill
    • Pharmacy (Kidcare)
    • Preparing for your stay or visit
    • Visiting hours and policies
    View our Physician directory page
    Find Your Doctor Directory
  • Clinics, Services & Programs
    • Directory
    • Emergency care
    • IR/Cath and Sim Labs
    • Make a referral
    • Mental health
    • School
    • Surgical care
    • Technology Enabling Child Health Innovations (TECHi)
    • Virtual care
  • Resources and Support
    • A-Z resources
    • Community supports
    • Families First newsletter
    • Family and caregiver supports
    • Indigeneity - Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Social justice
    • Patient Experience
    • Reads2CHEO
    • Transition to adult care
  • Get Involved
    • Co-op program
    • Donate
    • Family Advisory Council
    • Feedback
    • Share your voice
    • Volunteer
    • YouthNet
  • About Us
    • 1Door4Care
    • About CHEO
    • Advocacy
    • Awards, Accreditations and Designations
    • Blog
    • Careers
    • Contact us
    • Disclaimer
    • Find your doctor
    • For community physicians
    • For learners, students and residents
    • For pharmacists
    • Indigeneity - Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Social justice
    • Innovation
    • Kids Come First
    • Leadership
    • Newsroom
    • Partners
    • Privacy and confidentiality
    • Reporting and statistics
    • Research and innovation
    • Social media terms of use
    • Strategy Renewal
HomeResources and SupportA-Z resourcesGrief and bereavement

Grief and bereavement

Child looking at camera

Regular Large X-Large
 
  • Open new window to share this page via Facebook Facebook
  • Open new window to share this page via LinkedIn LinkedIn
  • Open new window to share this page via Twitter Twitter
  • Email this page Email
Resources and Support
    • A-Z resources
      Toggle Section A-Z resources Menu
      • ACL injuries
      • Adenoidectomy
      • ADHD
      • Allergies
      • Anger
      • Anxiety and stress management
      • Asthma
      • Autism
      • Back to school
      • Bipolar disorder
      • Borderline personality disorder
      • Breastfeeding
      • Broken bones and torn ligaments
      • Bronchiolitis
      • Broviac central line
      • Bullying
      • Burns
      • Cancer
      • Cast care
      • Cerebral Palsy
      • Child and youth abuse
      • Complimentary and alternative medicine
      • Concussion
      • Connective Tissue Diseases
      • Constipation
      • Continuous nerve blocks at home
      • Cough and cold
      • COVID-19
      • Croup
      • Crutches
      • Crying
      • Cystic fibrosis
      • Depression
      • Developmental displasia
      • Diabetes
      • Diarrhea and vomiting
      • Down syndrome
      • Ear tubes
      • Eating disorders
      • Eczema (atopic dermatitis)
      • Emergency care
      • ENFit – Transitioning to safer enteral connections
      • Epilepsy
      • FASD
      • Feeding
      • Fever
      • Financial tips
      • Functional endoscopic sinus surgery
      • Gastrostomy tubes
      • Grief and bereavement
      • Gut health
      • Halo vests
      • Head injuries
      • Healthy active living
      • Heart murmurs
      • Hip spica casts
      • Hospitalization and surgery
      • Indigenous peoples
      • Infectious Diseases
      • Intoeing
      • IV care
      • Learning disabilities and dyslexia
      • Medical imaging
      • Mental health
      • Mindfulness
      • MIS-C
      • Neck surgery
      • Neonatal Intensive Care/Premature babies
      • Nosebleeds
      • Nutrition
      • OCD
      • Oncology
      • Pain and chronic illness
      • Pain management for procedures (Comfort Care)
      • Parenting
      • Parenting - special needs
      • Pavlik harness
      • Pelvic fractures
      • Polycystic ovarian syndrome
      • Preparing for an ultrasound (Urology and Nephrology)
      • Puberty
      • Recreation therapy
      • Scoliosis
      • Sedation for medical procedures
      • Self esteem
      • Self harm
      • Sensory processing disorder
      • Sexual orientation and gender identity
      • Siblings
      • Sickle cell anemia
      • Sleep
      • Social anxiety
      • Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus
      • Staying at CHEO
      • Strep Throat
      • Stuttering and language development
      • Substance abuse
      • Suicide
      • Taking care of burns
      • Taking pills
      • Technology and family life
      • Toilet training
      • Tonsillectomy
      • Torticollis
      • Tourette syndrome
      • Traumatic brain injury
      • Ultrasounds
      • Vaccination
        Toggle Section Vaccination Menu
        • COVID vaccine FAQs
      • Vascular access
      • Vulvovaginitis
    • Community supports
    • Families First newsletter
    • Family and caregiver supports
      Toggle Section Family and caregiver supports Menu
      • Child Life
      • Grief and Bereavement Care
      • Language and interpretation services
      • Navigator Program
      • Social work
      • Spiritual support
    • Indigeneity - Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Social justice
    • Patient Experience
      Toggle Section Patient Experience Menu
      • Bioethics Consultation Service
    • Reads2CHEO
    • Transition to adult care

Contact us

Receive Email Updates...

At some point, we all face the death of someone we love. This is a difficult experience for a person of any age, but is especially hard for children and youth.

Below you will find a variety of resources to help you better understand, cope with and/or support someone going through grief and bereavement.

Books

35 ways to help a grieving child

Portland, OR: The Dougy Center, 1999.

Learn what behaviors and reactions to expect from children at different ages, ways to create safe outlets for children to express their thoughts and feelings and how to be supportive during special events such as the memorial service, anniversaries and holidays.

After you lose someone you love: advice and insight from the diaries of three kids who've been there

Dennison, Amy -- Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing Inc. 2005.

Three children, a boy of 4 and twin 8 year old girls deal with their father's death. The diary entries begin with finding out their father has died, and cover the 2 years following his death.

Being with dying: cultivating compassion and fearlessness in the presence of death

Halifax, Joan -- Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc., 2008.

Inspired by traditional Buddhist teachings, this is a source for all those who are charged with a dying person's care, facing their own death, or wishing to explore and contemplate the transformative power of the dying process. The author's teachings affirm that we can open and contact our inner strength, and that we can help others who are suffering to do the same.

Breaking the silence: a guide to help children with complicated grief - suicide, homicide, AIDS, violence, and abuse

Goldman, Linda -- New York: Taylor & Francis, 2001.

This book provides specific ideas and techniques to work with children in various areas of complicated grief. It presents words and methods to help initiate discussions of these delicate topics, as well as tools to help children understand and separate complicated grief into parts.

Children die too: for parents who are experiencing to death of a child

Johnson, Joy -- Omaha, NE: Centering Corporation, 2004.

This brief booklet offers comforting insights and information about the feelings that are often experienced by parents after the death of a child. It also offers advice on how to talk to siblings and ways in which they may deal with their grief.

Dealing with dying, death, and grief during adolescence

Balk, David E. -- New York: Routledge, 2014.

Using clear language, the author provides readers with information about adolescent development to form the back story to comprehend the impact of death and bereavement in an adolescent's life. It also examines interventions that assist adolescents coping with death and grief.

Dear parents: letters to bereaved parents

Omaha, NE: Centering Corporation, 2003.

This is a support group in book form. It is a collection of letters from bereaved parents to bereaved parents. Each page will tell you what other bereaved parents and siblings went through and what you can to do try and cope.

Don't despair on Thursdays! the children's grief-management book

Moser, Adolph J. -- Kansas City, MS: Landmark Editions, 1996.

A guide for children on dealing with feelings of grief when people or pets die or when friends move away.

Easing the hurt: a handbook of comfort for families and friends of people who are seriously ill

Latimer, Elizabeth J. -- Hamilton, ON: E. Latimer, 1998.

This book provides suggestions on how to help those who are dealing with serious illness in a loved one or themselves. It is a combination of thought, ideas, suggestions and reflections.

Grandma's tears: comfort for grieving grandparents

Kolf, June Cerza -- Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1995.

Grandparents are often overlooked when a grandchild dies, yet they carry a double burden - the loss of their grandchild and the sorrow of their own grieving children. Author Kolf offers support and hope in brief chapters that do not overwhelm the bereaved.

The grief recovery handbook: the action program for moving beyond death, divorce, and other losses

James, John W. -- New York: HarperPerennial, 1998.

This resource helps people complete the grieving process and move toward recovery and happiness. It illustrates how it is possible to recover from grief and regain energy and spontaneity.

A guide for fathers: when a baby dies

Nelson, Timoth -- St. Paul, MN: A Place to Remember, 2004.

This book offers suggestions for communicating with medical caregivers, offering support to their partner, telling the news to other children, making funeral arrangements and taking care of themselves in a time of crisis. It discusses effective communications during the weeks and months following the loss, going to a support group, returning to the workplace, and the issues surrounding a subsequent pregnancy.

Guiding your child through grief

Emswiler, Mary Ann -- New York: Bantam Books, 2000.

This caring and compassionate guide offers expert advice during difficult days to help a child grieve the death of a parent or sibling. Based on their experience as counselors and as parents of grieving children, the authors help readers to understand the many ways children grieve, changes in family dynamics after death, ways to communicate with children about death and grief, how to cope with the intense sorrow triggered by holidays, the signs grief has turned to depression and where to find help.

Healing your grieving heart for kids: 100 practical ideas

Wolfelt, Alan D. -- Fort Collins, CO: Companion Press, 2001.

This book helps children deal with the grief they are feeling after the death of a loved one. It helps them to mourn so that they eventually feel better.

The heart and the bottle

Jeffers, Oliver. -- London UK: HarperCollins Children's Books, 2010.

In this story, the author deals with the weighty themes of love and loss with an lightness of touch and shows us, ultimately, that there is always hope.

Helping teens cope with death

Portland, OR: The Dougy Center, 1999.

This practical guide covers the unique grief responses of teenagers and the specific challenges they face when grieving a death. You will learn how death impacts teenagers and ways that you can help them.

Howard B. Wigglebottom listens to a friend: a fable about loss and healing

Binkow, Howard. -- Thunderbolt Publishing, 2015.

Howard's friend Kiki's pet dies, and Howard and his friends must learn how to help her cope.

Ida, always

Levis, Caron; Santoso, Charles (ill). -- New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2016.

A story of two best friends inspired by a real bear friendship and a gentle reminder that loved ones lost will stay in our hearts, always. For ages 4-8

Joy at the end of the rainbow: a guide to pregnancy after a loss

Amanda Ross-White, 2018.

Written by a mother who has had both stillborn twins and two successful rainbow pregnancies, with guidance from the latest research on pregnancy after a loss, this guide will help you manage your anxiety as you anticipate the arrival of your rainbow child.

Keys to helping children deal with death and grief

Johnson, Joy -- Hauppauge, NY: Barron's, 1999.

An experienced bereavement specialist tells parents how to explain the concept of death in ways that will be understandable to children. She helps parents anticipate children's responses and needs, shows how to cope with funeral rites in meaningful ways, and points out the importance of incorporating the loss into a positive sense of personal memories.

Parenting with wit and wisdom in times of chaos and loss

Coloroso, Barbara -- Toronto: Viking, 1999.

Author Barbara Coloroso tackles the question of how to parent when life is not smooth, when tragedy or trauma invades daily life, whether it's a small crisis or a major disaster. Barbara looks at how we as parents can best comfort and nurture our children, and ourselves, as we navigate through the inevitable suffering, adversity, chaos, and losses in our lives.

Samantha Jane's missing smile: a story about coping with the loss of a parent

Kaplow, Julie -- Washington, DC: Magination Press, 2007.

With the help of her mother and her neighbor Mrs. Cooper, Samantha Jane is able to talk about how sad she is since her father died and to find ways to remember him, and then she begins to feel better. Appropriate for Ages: 4 - 8 years.

Saying goodbye to Daddy

Vigna, Judith -- Morton Grove, IL: Albert Whitman & Co. 1991.

After Clare's father is killed in a car accident, she becomes frightened, lonely, and angry. Clare's mother and grandfather help her through the grieving process. Appropriate for Ages: 4-8 years

Shelter from the storm: caring for a child with a life-threatening condition

Hilden, Joanne M. -- Cambridge MA: Perseus Publishing, 2003.

Provides support for parents coping with the psychological and spiritual hardships of caring for a child with a life-threatening illness.

What about the kids? understanding their needs in funeral planning and services

Dougy Center for Grieving Children -- Portland, OR: The Dougy Center For Grieving Children, 1999.

This book addresses the best practices for funeral and memorial services with children and teens. Learn how to include children in these rituals and creative ways to involve them in the process. You will find suggestions from children and teens about what was helpful and unhelpful about the funeral or memorial service they attended.

What is Death

Boritzer, Etan -- Los Angeles, CA: St. Veronica Lane Books, 2000.

The author presents the concept of death to children with examples of customs and beliefs from various religions and cultures. Appropriate for Ages: 4-11 years

What's Heaven?

Shriver, Maria -- New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.

A girl asks her mother questions about heaven after her great-grandmother passes away. Appropriate for Ages: 4-8 years

When a family pet dies: a guide to dealing with children's loss

Tuzeo-Jarolmen, Joann -- London: Jessica Kingsley, 2007.

Addresses the signs of grieving children, their relationships with their pets, and how caring adults can be helpful. Provides practical interventions in helping the child's grief process.

When children grieve: for adults to help children deal with death, divorce, pet loss, moving, and other losses

James, John W. -- New York, Quill, 2002.

There are many life experiences that can produce feelings of grief in a child, from the death of a relative or a divorce in the family to more everyday experiences such as moving to a new neighborhood or losing a prized possession. No matter the reason or degree of severity, if a child you love is grieving, the guidelines examined in this thoughtful book can make a difference.

When dinosaurs die: a guide to understanding death

Brown, Laurie Krasny -- Boston: Little, Brown, 1996.

Explains in simple language the feelings people may have regarding the death of a loved one and the ways to honor the memory of someone who has died.

Websites

  • Compassionate Friends of Canada – Ottawa Valley / Outaouais Chapter 
  • Bereaved Families of Ontario – Ottawa Region
  • Grief & Loss - BC Children's Hospital  
  • Roger Neilson House
  • Grief – Sesame Street
  • Living with loss: Ways to help you grieve a death – Kids Help Phone
  • Dougy Centre for Grieving Children & Families 
  • Grief and Children – American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
  • Grief – Health Link BC
  • Canadian Hospital Palliative Care Association
  • Virtual Hospice

Local Contacts

  • Roger Neilson House
    399 Smyth Rd
    Ottawa, ON K1H 8L2
    613-523-6300 x 4600
    info@rogerneilsonhouse.ca
  • Bereaved Families of Ontario – Ottawa
    211 Bronson Ave, Suite 303
    Ottawa, ON K1R 6H5
    613-567-4278
    office@bfo-ottawa.org
  • The Compassionate Friends - Ottawa Chapter
    30 Canadian Dr.
    Ashton, ON K0A 1B0
    tcfOttawa@rogers.com

Disclaimer

These resources are for educational purposes only. If you have any questions, ask your health-care provider.

CHEO

  • Visiting CHEO
  • Clinics, Services & Programs
  • Resources and Support
  • Get Involved
  • About Us

Contact Us

CHEO
401 Smyth Road
Ottawa ON K1H 8L1
Phone: 613-737-7600
Email Us

 

Connect with us

View our Facebook Page View our Twitter Page View our Instagram Page View our YouTube Page View our LinkedIn Page

Sign up for our newsletter

twitter:1248b279-93aa-4ec9-8398-fb5ed28a6413

Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario logo

Copyright 2021 CHEO.

By GHD Digital
  • Sitemap
  • Accessibility
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy and confidentiality
  • Website Feedback
  • Contact Us

Staff Portal

Close Old Browser Notification
Browser Compatibility Notification
It appears you are trying to access this site using an outdated browser. As a result, parts of the site may not function properly for you. We recommend updating your browser to its most recent version at your earliest convenience.