Grief Coach, a Text-Based Grief Support Intervention: Acceptability Among Hospice Family Members

Area of Science:

• Palliative Care
• Digital Health
• Grief and Bereavement Studies

Background:

• U.S. Medicare-certified hospices are mandated to provide bereavement care for 13 months post-patient death.
• Meeting this mandate requires effective and scalable grief support solutions.
• Text message-based interventions offer a novel approach to delivering continuous support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the Grief Coach text message program for hospice bereavement care.
• To evaluate the program's initial adoption and user satisfaction among hospice-affiliated grievers.
• To identify helpful intervention components and user demographics.

Main Methods:

• Description of the Grief Coach program's features and content.
• Analysis of the first 350 Grief Coach subscribers from hospice settings.
• Survey of 154 active subscribers, with 100 responses (65% response rate), to assess program helpfulness and perceived support.

Main Results:

• The 13-month program retention rate was 86%.
• Among survey respondents, 73% found the program very helpful, and 74% felt more supported in their grief.
• Grievers aged 65+ and males reported the highest satisfaction ratings.

Conclusions:

• Grief Coach demonstrates high retention and user satisfaction, suggesting its efficacy.
• The program may assist hospices in fulfilling their bereavement care obligations.
• Qualitative feedback highlights specific intervention elements that resonate with users, informing future program development.