Find a Peer Grief Support Group

When someone is grieving, they experience many different feelings, including sadness, guilt, anger, fear, isolation, heartbreak, and longing for their loved one. The stigma associated with having a loved one die of an overdose can exacerbate these feelings. With the COVID-19 pandemic, fear and isolation are becoming almost universal feelings. Grief is often complicated by the fact that those closest to a person may not understand and relate to their pain. This is when being listened to, understood, and supported by one's peers can be a powerful tool, and finding proper support is critical.

Peer grief support offers hope and a sense of community where those who are experiencing grief can talk about what they are feeling with people who genuinely understand. People further along in their grief journeys have an opportunity to give back while continuing to help themselves in the process. For the most part, people don't know about peer grief support until they need it. Knowing where to find a grief support group that is right for a person can be a challenge. SADOD understands this.

On the top of every page of SADOD.org is a purple button marked "grief support groups." Clicking on it will bring you to our Grief Support Group Directory. The directory address is: sadod.org/support-group-directory.

This directory lists a variety of grief support groups in Massachusetts. It includes groups exclusively for people bereaved by a death from substance use, which are indicated by a purple heart icon. You can check a box in the search area for virtual grief support groups to find a video group in this time of social distancing.

To better help you find the group that you are looking for, select the focus of the group. These focuses include the type of death, your relationship to the deceased, and other characteristics. You can also search by ZIP Code.

The SADOD directory lists 64 peer grief groups in Massachusetts. If you know of a peer grief support group not in the directory, please recommend a group to us at [email protected].