Fostering Grief and Bereavement Literacy in the Workplace for Those Who Serve People Experiencing Homelessness

Our recent research in BC shows that there is lack of grief support services available for people experiencing homelessness after they lose someone they care about. One common source of grief support for people experiencing homelessness are frontline workers. Yet, recent research found that frontline workers are commonly not provided grief support training, and their own work-related grief after a client dies is largely unsupported. In our survey of frontline workers in BC, almost all expressed a desire to increase their knowledge of grief.

Our project aims to improve grief knowledge and support skills for frontline workers who serve people experiencing homelessness. The project includes two steps: 1) Co-creating and testing an online grief education module and resources with a working group of community-based organizations, subject matter experts, and public partners; 2) Launching the developed module and resources through a symposium and exploring with experts in the field ways to make them more accessible for frontline workers. The ultimate goal of the project is to enhance the grief literacy for frontline workers and improve their abilities to provide better grief support to their clients who are experiencing homelessness.