A New Text-Based Approach to Delivering Quality Bereavement Care

Hospice bereavement programs across Canada face mounting challenges: staff shortages, difficulty reaching underserved populations, geographic and language barriers, and low engagement with traditional outreach methods such as voicemails and mailers. As a result, only a fraction of grieving family members who need support actually receive it, and those gaps fall hardest on rural communities, older adults, men, and non-English speakers.

This workshop examines the current bereavement landscape in Canadian hospices and how a public health model for bereavement care offers a framework for reaching more people more equitably. Within that framework, the session introduces a text-based grief support program as a clinically grounded, scalable approach to filling those gaps, delivering ongoing support, information, and encouragement of adaptive coping behaviors via text message, offered as a hospice benefit.

As digital tools evolve, hospice professionals are increasingly encountering both text-based support programs and AI-driven grief tools. This session will help participants understand the distinction between the two: how human-informed, clinically designed text-based programs differ from AI chatbots and automated grief applications in terms of design, evidence base, appropriate use, and ethical considerations. Understanding this difference is becoming an essential part of informed bereavement program planning.

Attendees will explore research published in the OMEGA Journal of Death and Dying, alongside data from Canadian hospice partnerships, demonstrating high retention rates, strong satisfaction scores, and positive outcomes among traditionally underserved groups, including older adults and men. Real-world examples of Canadian partnerships will illustrate how this model can be adapted to local contexts.

This session is intended for hospice and end-of-life care professionals, including bereavement coordinators, social workers, nurses, and program leaders seeking practical, evidence-informed strategies to expand the reach and equity of their bereavement programs. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of where text-based support fits within a public health approach, what the evidence shows, and how to critically evaluate emerging digital tools in grief care.

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

Describe the current bereavement care landscape in Canadian hospices, including key service gaps, underserved populations, and how a public health model supports a more equitable approach.

Analyze data from peer-reviewed research and Canadian hospice partnerships on the outcomes and effectiveness of a text-based bereavement intervention.

Distinguish between text-based grief support programs and AI-driven grief tools, and evaluate the benefits and limitations of each in the context of hospice bereavement care.

A New Text-Based Approach to Delivering Quality Bereavement Care
Thursday, December 10th from 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm (Eastern)

Emma Payne, MSc

Emma Payne is a seasoned technology entrepreneur, MIT graduate, and award-winning change agent with 30 years of experience leading game-changing online and mobile projects, including building North America’s first online crisis intervention line. Following her husband’s suicide, Emma founded Help Texts in 2018 with a deep commitment to making expert bereavement care available to everyone grieving the death of a loved one. Help Texts is now the world’s leading clinically sound, scalable bereavement tool.

The company delivers multilingual support globally. With extraordinary acceptability (95%) and six-month retention (90%) rates (even higher among men and people 65+), Help Texts’ lightweight, affordable solution makes it easy for employers, providers, payers, and others to improve health and community outcomes while realizing significant cost savings for those in their care.

Kathryn Wozny, MSW, RSW

Kathryn Wozny is the Director of Family Support Services, overseeing the family support programs at Canuck Place. Her passion for family-centered care, engagement, quality and safety, enables her to ensure children and families are cared for holistically. Before joining Canuck Place, Kathryn has practiced social work in Ontario and British Columbia since 2008.

She has experience in supporting families in caring for their children with medical complexities, with a passion for person and family-centered planning. She has received training in mediation and facilitation. Since moving to British Columbia in 2013, she has focused on service and program development, community collaboration, and strategic engagement. These experiences all contribute to the passion and values of inclusive care and empowering individuals and families to live their best lives.