Briarpatch Centre For Grieving Families

The BriarPatch Centre for Grieving Families provides bereavement services and education to those who have experienced the death of someone they love.

The BriarPatch Centre for Grieving Families Program was created as a program of Pilgrims Hospice of Edmonton in 2000 to meet the needs of Edmonton Area families who are seeking caring and compassionate support for their individual and unique bereavement journey. Program services include the popular Expressive Arts support group settings, individual and family counselling, Colored Tears summer daycamps, and art and music therapies. Children may attend starting at age 5 until age 12. Teens may attend from 13 to 18 years of age.

Bereaved children and teens that have experienced the death of a loved one are more at risk for psychological and behavioral difficulties than those that have not experienced such a loss. Helping a bereaved child or teen is the epitome of good preventive mental, physical and spiritual health care. Involvement in Expressive Arts programming provides children and teens and their families with the necessary social sanction and permission to express their feelings. They find comfort and relief in knowing that others feel the way they do and that they are not alone.