Grief Support Resources: Hotlines, Groups and What Each Is For
The short answer: if you need someone right now, call or text 988 in the US or Canada, call 116 123 in the UK or Ireland, or 13 11 14 in Australia; all are free and open around the clock. If you are not in crisis but need to talk to someone who understands grief, the dedicated grief lines are Cruse (0808 808 1677) in the UK and Griefline (1300 845 745) in Australia; in the US there is no single national grief hotline, so the nearest equivalent is the bereavement program of any local hospice, which is required to offer one and will usually take non-hospice families too. For ongoing support, the best free groups are organised by the kind of loss: The Compassionate Friends for a child, TAPS for a military death, the Dougy Center's network for grieving children, and AFSP or Alliance of Hope after a suicide.
This page is a directory, not advice. Each entry says what the service is for and who runs it, so you can pick the right door the first time. Numbers were checked against each organisation's own site in October 2026; they do change, so if one fails, go to the website named beside it.
Tonight: crisis lines
These are for when the grief has tipped into something that frightens you, or when it is three in the morning and you need a voice. You do not have to be suicidal to call them, and the people answering know that.
| Where | Call or text | Hours | Run by |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Call or text 988; chat at 988lifeline.org | 24/7 | 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline |
| United States | Text HOME to 741741 | 24/7 | Crisis Text Line |
| Canada | Call or text 988 | 24/7 | 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline |
| UK and Ireland | Call 116 123 (free from any phone) | 24/7 | Samaritans |
| Australia | Call 13 11 14 | 24/7 | Lifeline |
If someone is in immediate danger, call your local emergency number instead: 911, 999, 112 or 000.
This week: grief lines
A grief line is different from a crisis line. The person answering is trained in bereavement specifically, there is no assumption of emergency, and the call can be about something as ordinary as not knowing what to do with his shoes.
- Cruse Bereavement Support (UK) — 0808 808 1677, free. Open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesday 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.; closed at weekends. Cruse also runs local branches with one-to-one and group support; cruse.org.uk.
- Griefline (Australia) — 1300 845 745, free. Weekdays 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. AEST/AEDT, plus online forums and support groups for adults; griefline.org.au.
- United States — there is no national grief line. Two substitutes work well. Any hospice: Medicare requires every hospice to run a bereavement program for families for up to a year after a death, and most open their groups and calls to anyone in the community, whether or not the person died in their care. And TAPS (below) for any military-connected death.
Next month: support groups by kind of loss
General grief groups are useful; groups built around the kind of death you had are usually better, because nobody in the room needs the situation explained. These are the established national ones. All are free unless noted.
A child, at any age
The Compassionate Friends (US) — 877-969-0010, compassionatefriends.org. For parents, siblings and grandparents after the death of a child of any age, from any cause. Hundreds of local chapters, plus moderated online chats and private groups for each relationship. If this is you, the death of an adult child and memorial ideas for a child are written for the same families.
A grieving child or teenager
The Dougy Center (US) — 503-775-5683, dougy.org. Peer support groups for children, teens and young adults, grouped by age and by kind of death, free of charge. Its worldwide program directory lists similar centers in most US states and several countries, which is the fastest way to find a children's grief program near you.
A military death
TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (US) — 800-959-8277, taps.org, helpline open day and night. For anyone grieving a death in the military, whatever the cause, including suicide and illness years after service. Peer mentors, seminars, children's camps and online groups. See also military funeral honors if the funeral is still ahead of you.
A suicide
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (US) — afsp.org/loss. Runs survivor support groups across the country and the Survivor Outreach Program, where a trained loss survivor visits or calls a newly bereaved family. It also hosts International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day each November, with local gatherings.
Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors — allianceofhope.org. A moderated online community that is open all hours, which matters at the stage when you cannot face a room. If you are supporting someone else, what to say when someone died by suicide is the companion to this entry.
A spouse or partner
Soaring Spirits International — soaringspirits.org. Peer-based, non-religious groups and events for widowed people of any age, including the Camp Widow weekends. Our own guide to coping with the loss of a spouse covers the first months.
Any loss: church-based and community groups
GriefShare — griefshare.org. A 13-week group program run through churches in the US and other countries, with a video and workbook each week. It is Christian in content; the groups are open to anyone and that is said up front. Search by postcode on the site. Many people who are not religious go anyway, for the structure and the weekly room.
Hospice bereavement groups — see above. Call the hospice nearest you and ask for the bereavement coordinator.
Funeral home aftercare — a growing number of funeral homes run monthly grief groups or a lunch for families they have served. Ask the director who handled the funeral.
When you need more than a group: counseling
A support group is people who have been through it. A grief counselor or therapist is someone trained to help when grief is not moving, which is a different need. The signs that it is time are in how long does grief last; briefly, if a year on you still cannot function at work or at home, or you are avoiding every reminder of the person, that is the point to ask for more than a group.
Ways to find one without paying full price:
- Your hospice, again: its bereavement program often includes a few individual sessions.
- Your employer's assistance program (EAP), which typically covers a handful of free counseling sessions and is confidential from your manager.
- Therapist directories with a grief filter, such as Psychology Today's in the US and Canada, or the BACP register in the UK. Ask about sliding-scale fees; many offer them without advertising it.
- University training clinics, where supervised graduate students see clients at low cost.
In the UK, your GP can refer you to NHS talking therapies; in Australia, a GP's mental health treatment plan covers a set number of subsidised sessions.
Reading and online communities
Not everyone wants a room or a phone. These are the online places that hold up.
- What's Your Grief (whatsyourgrief.com) — articles by two grief counselors that are honest about the parts nobody says out loud.
- Reddit's r/GriefSupport — anonymous, active at every hour, uneven in quality but reliably kind.
- Option B (optionb.org) — stories and practical pieces on resilience after loss, built around Sheryl Sandberg's book.
And on this site, the pieces readers come back to most: grief has no timeline, anger in grief, guilt after a death, grief and sleep, and for the person standing beside you, how to support a grieving friend.
How to choose
If you are deciding where to start:
- Frightened by your own thoughts tonight → a crisis line, above.
- Need to talk this week and are not in danger → a grief line, or your local hospice's bereavement coordinator.
- Want people who have had the same loss → the group for your kind of death.
- Grief is not moving after many months → a counselor, found through hospice, EAP or a directory.
- Cannot face a room or a phone yet → an online community, and come back to this list later.
None of these replaces the others, and most people use two or three over the first two years.
A place to put it
Some of what you are carrying is not a problem to be supported through; it is a person to be remembered. Many families find that building a memorial page, with the photographs, the stories and the messages others leave, does something the groups cannot. On GetMemorial a page can be public, shared by access code, or visible only to you, and it costs nothing to start. How to create a free online memorial is the step-by-step, when you are ready.
GetMemorial helps families build beautiful, lasting online memorials in minutes — a permanent home for photos, stories and the messages people leave over the years. Build yours at GetMemorial.com.
