Mourner Support: Tools and Resources

Bay Area Resources for Mourners

Numerous Bay Area organizations offer a range of support programs for mourners, including counseling, hotlines, and special programs for young people. A sampling of these organizations is listed in alphabetical order.

Camp Erin (Livermore)
(415) 230-6310
Offers a free grief support weekend for children and teens ages 6 to 17 coping with loss

Centre for Living with Dying/Bill Wilson Center (Santa Clara)
(408) 243-0222
Offers individual and group support for adults, children, and families

The Compassionate Friends (Bay Area chapters in Burlingame, Oakland, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Napa, San Rafael, and Walnut Creek)
(877) 969-0010
Offers peer-led grief support after the death of a child

Contra Costa Crisis Center (Walnut Creek)
(800) 837-1818
Offers individual counseling by trained volunteers in clients' homes or at Walnut Creek office. Also provides grief support program for adults, children, and teens, as well as a 24-hour grief support hotline

Crisis Support Services (Oakland)
(800) 309-2131
Offers grief support for individuals, families, and groups in Alameda County. Also provides general grief support, as well as support for survivors of homicide or suicide.

Family Service of the Tri-Cities (Fremont)
(510) 574-2100
Offers counseling for youth and their families

Helping After Neonatal Death
(888) 908-4263 (24-hour-a-day grief support)
(888) 908-4263 (office)
Offers support group and on-line resources

Institute on Aging (San Francisco)
415-750-4111
Offers one-on-one counseling and grief support groups. Some groups specialize in traumatic and suicide loss. IOA Friendship Line offers 24-hour free hotline for older adults, at (415) 752-3778.

Jewish Family and Children's Services of the East Bay
(510) 704-7480, ext. 745
Offers bereavement support groups

Jewish Family and Children's Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties
(415) 449-3879
Offers non-denominational bereavement support groups, workshops, individual and family counseling, and healing and memory services

Josie's Place (San Francisco)
(415) 513-6343
Offers support groups for children and teens

KARA – Grief Support for Children and Adults (Palo Alto)
(650) 321-5272
Offers grief support groups for children, teenagers, and adults

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

Pathways (Sunnyvale)
(888) 755-7855
Offers grief support group, individual counseling, and workshops in Sunnyvale, South San Francisco, and Oakland

San Francisco Suicide Prevention 24-Hour Crisis Line
(415) 781-0500

Zen Hospice Project (San Francisco)
(415) 863-2910
Offers grief support groups, individual counseling, mindfulness-based grief support groups, and workshops