Riley Children’s Grief Program Cares for Families After Losing a Child
•February 12, 2026
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Why It Matters
By filling a long‑standing gap in pediatric bereavement services, the program improves emotional outcomes for grieving families and offers a replicable framework for hospices nationwide.
Key Takeaways
- •New bereavement program offers memory‑making for grieving families.
- •Model designed for replication across pediatric hospice providers nationwide.
- •Funding from LG30 Foundation supports therapeutic supplies and kits.
- •Program evaluated after six months, showing positive family feedback.
- •Interdisciplinary collaboration essential for effective pediatric grief care.
Pulse Analysis
Pediatric loss presents unique emotional challenges that traditional hospice models often overlook. Across the United States, families face limited access to specialized grief resources, especially in states where adult hospice agencies lack pediatric‑trained staff. Riley Children’s Health identified these gaps and responded with a structured bereavement program that integrates memory‑making, legacy boxes, and creative therapies. By partnering with the LG30 Foundation, the initiative secured the supplies needed to deliver personalized, developmentally appropriate interventions, positioning the program as a practical solution for a vulnerable population.
The program’s design emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration, drawing on social workers, art and music therapists, child life specialists, and behavioral health clinicians. This team‑based approach ensures that each family receives tailored support that addresses both psychosocial and spiritual dimensions of grief. Importantly, the model was built with direct input from bereaved parents, guaranteeing relevance and cultural sensitivity. Its inclusion in a recent Journal of Palliative Medicine literature review validates the methodology and provides a blueprint for other pediatric hospice organizations seeking to adopt similar memory‑making practices.
For the broader hospice and palliative care industry, Riley’s initiative signals a shift toward scalable, evidence‑based pediatric bereavement services. As reimbursement structures evolve and Medicaid policies increasingly recognize pediatric hospice needs, programs like this can demonstrate cost‑effective outcomes that justify funding. Ongoing six‑month outcome assessments will generate data on family satisfaction and emotional resilience, informing future policy advocacy and encouraging wider adoption of legacy‑building therapies across the sector.
Riley Children’s Grief Program Cares for Families After Losing a Child
The pediatric palliative care department at Riley Children’s Health has rolled out a new bereavement program aimed at improving grief support for families facing the loss of a child.
The new program includes memory- and legacy-making projects designed to address familial grief following the death of a child at home.
A main goal of the initiative is to construct a model that can be replicated and refined around the diverse and unique needs of bereaved and grieving families, said Alisha McGuire, a licensed clinical pediatric palliative care social worker at Riley Children’s Health, which is part hospital of Indiana University (IU) Health.
Significant gaps exist when it comes to access and support of pediatric hospice and bereavement care, an issue that drove the program forward, McGuire stated. Reimbursement challenges play an important role in the types of services available, as many pediatric payment streams exist in Medicaid and state-based policies.
“Indiana is a state in which adult hospice agencies have pediatric-trained staff, versus in other states you may see a full, robust pediatric team,” McGuire told Hospice News. “There are gaps that exist, and one of those gaps is a psychosocial provider as part of that bereavement piece we might normally offer to families navigating a child loss. There are things that are very unique to losing a child, whether it’s in the hospital or at home. There are non-medical things we can do during that time.”
The memory-making program is designed to be adaptable for implementation by any hospice and was developed with input across multiple disciplines and bereaved parents.
Riley Children’s Foundation partnered with LG30 Foundation Inc. for a fundraising campaign to support the project. The gathered philanthropic donations fund the pediatric palliative care team’s therapeutic supplies for the memory boxes, kits, books and artistic projects.
The memory-making therapeutic activities can have a significant impact on bereaved families and parents experiencing anticipatory grief, posited McGuire. The therapeutic-guided activities allow families to form trusted relationships with staff and address difficult emotions, she said.
The program was recently included in a literature review published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. The review illustrated the program’s implementation, led by McGuire, with insights and support from Rachel Rusch, a licensed clinical social worker at the pediatric palliative medicine division at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
The review detailed the grief program’s structure, key staffing considerations, supplies and resources needed, and included perspectives from both families and providers.
Hospice providers on the pediatric palliative care teams that participated in the memory-making program have suggested making it more accessible to families facing other unique bereavement situations.
Bereavement outcomes will be evaluated following six months of a family’s participation in the new program. Family feedback has thus far been positive, McGuire stated.
Parents experiencing the loss of a child often navigate complex emotional and spiritual needs compared to others. Shock, anger, fear and depression can be experienced differently, she indicated.
Integrating legacy-building therapies involves assessing developmentally-appropriate and family-centered bereavement needs, according to McGuire. Hospices seeking to strengthen or develop pediatric- and family-centered grief services must prioritize interdisciplinary staff collaboration. This involves coordination across bereavement teams, art or music therapists, child life and behavioral health specialists, social workers and other clinicians.
“My hope with this manuscript paper is that it shows that an institution has done this and is building that foundation for other programs to feel empowered,” McGuire said. “It’s trying to make it a little bit easier on other folks with different programs. My hope is that this aids in the bereavement process. We can’t fix that a child is going to die, but we can create meaning and offer support with these interventions. This legacy- and memory-making, there are so many different ways that people perceive it.”
The post Riley Children’s Grief Program Cares for Families After Losing a Child appeared first on Hospice News.
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