Essentia Health

St. Mary’s Grief Support Essentia Health – Duluth, Minnesota

Grief Support Services can make the difference between grieving in isolation and thriving in community.

Families touched by tragedy make their first call to close relatives and friends. Their second call is often to St. Mary's Grief Support Services.

Over the years, memorial gifts have been given, and endowed funds established to ensure that the St. Mary's Grief Support Services' mission of providing outreach to area youth in a school setting is able to continue. Community education and advanced training on suicide prevention, serious illness, and trauma support is regularly provided for mental health professionals, educators, volunteers, and clergy, thanks to your financial contributions.

How We Help

Since 1985, St. Mary's Grief Support Services has provided a safe place for grieving children, teens, and adults of all ages to heal. Because each individual's response to loss is unique, St. Mary's Grief Support Services offers resources for individuals and families. For those affected by a life-threatening illness, or grieving the death of a loved one, we offer:

• Individual or family counseling
• Support groups
• One-to-one peer support

This can make the difference between grieving in isolation and thriving in community.

Essentia Health Foundation's Grief Support Fund enhances programs and services that benefit grieving families in our region. This fund supports ongoing compassionate care. Your support will help the future of Grief Support Services in the following ways:

•Expanding virtual grief teletherapy services to underserved

•Expanding support to employees impacted by Covid-19 stressors

•Expanding grief and trauma resources, training, and collaboration with rural Essentia Health clinics and hospitals 

•Expanding school based grief resources and support

•Building new adjoining group rooms for youth and their parents 

•Building a private and serene waiting area and resource room

•Designing therapy rooms with natural light and dedicated pediatric room for play and movement therapies

•Expanding school based grief resources and support

•Providing 12 Grief Support Groups for children, teens, and adults at no cost.

Gabriel's Gift is another resource offered at no cost to grieving parents whose child has died by miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death, accident, suicide, illness, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). This special fund provides materials for:

• Commemorative plaster footprints
• Photos
• Baby caskets
• Baby quilts
• Memorial books
• Resource materials for parents and siblings of a brother or sister who has died