SADOD's Community Peer Grief Support Programs
Please use the Request Help form to contact us.
SADOD and our partner The Sun Will Rise offer peer grief support to people grieving the drug-alcohol-related death of a loved one or of someone they feel close to. Our trained staff and volunteers are peer grief helpers, people who themselves have suffered a death from substance use and now support other grieving people.
All of our services are free and confidential, and we will mail a free grief support booklet to any Massachusetts address.
One-on-One Outreach
Through our outreach programs — Grief Connections and Finding Your Way — grieving people are contacted by a peer grief helper, who listens with compassion and gives information and support to each person according to their particular needs. Grief Connections works with local agencies to reach out and provide timely, personalized assistance to grievers. Finding Your Way responds to individuals who contact SADOD directly.
One-on-One Support
Through the Peer Grief Ally Program, a bereaved person and their Ally work together on the issues most important to the griever. Allies are not clinicians: they are volunteers trained to support grieving people by having conversations about what each person most needs and wants to talk about. The tragedies suffered by the Ally and the grieving person create common ground that is the foundation for a mutually healing experience. If you are interested in volunteering as a Peer Grief Ally, click here.
Peer Grief Support Groups
SADOD and our partner, The Sun Will Rise, provide training, technical assistance, and robust support to about 35 Peer Grief Support Groups (PGSGs) across Massachusetts that specialize in grief after a substance-use death. There are currently 14 face-to-face meetings and 18 virtual meetings every month.
There are specialty groups for men, spouses, multiple losses, and other populations, so we can ensure that grievers are connected with a support group that is right for them.
Hundreds of grieving people attend PGSGs every month, and the most visited page on sadod.org is our searchable Support Group Directory, which lists the 35 substance-use focused grief groups and about 30 additional support groups for grieving people.
Psychoeducational Workshops
SADOD’s virtual psychoeducational workshops offer an opportunity for individuals to learn about topics related to grief following deaths due to substance use. These virtual workshops are offered on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 6:30-8:00 ET. Previous workshop topics have included Stigma, Anxiety, Guilt, and more.
Please note that workshops differ from peer grief support groups in that there is less interactivity among participants and more of a focus on slideshows and other educational materials shared by the facilitators.
Our next workshop, Changing Family Dynamics: Planning for Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, and more, will take place on Tuesday, April 23rd at 6:30 pm. Sign up here.
What to expect from peer grief support
Every SADOD staff person and volunteer who offers direct support to grieving people has personally experienced the death of someone they love from a drug-related cause. They are trained to help others cope with their grief, and they treat every griever as a unique individual who is on their own journey.
One-on-One
Group
Online
- Whether support groups meet in-person or by video call, they each create a circle where people help each other by sharing grief that is caused by a tragedy everyone has experienced.
- Each person’s grief is unique, but a group gives you an opportunity to meet people whose loss and circumstances are similar to yours in meaningful ways.
- No one is required to share in a Peer Grief Support Group. Sharing and listening are both healing, and you may listen until you feel it is the right time for you to tell your story.
- Peer Grief Support Groups are designed to be safe spaces where you can share the most difficult things about your grief and be accepted no matter what has happened.
- Support groups are one of the best places to share who your loved one was and why you miss them so much — and you can cry when you need to.
- By connecting with a Peer Grief Helper, you will be able to tell your story to someone who knows what the pain of this kind of grief is like — and who will listen without opinions, pressure, or judgment.
- Peer Grief Helpers have traveled their grief journey for a year or more and, from their own experience, can relate to how difficult it is to cope with loss after a loved one dies from substance use.
- Peer Grief Helpers have found hope and healing, and they also understand what it is like when grief is overwhelming. They meet you where you are at on your grief journey.
- Peer Grief Helpers give you reassurance that you are not alone. Each of them has found their way to the other side of grief and will help you find your personal path to healing.
- SADOD offers you a place to memorialize your loved one (Honoring the Many) or to express your grief artistically (Visions & Voices).
- On sadod.org, you can find helpful articles about grief and links to additional grief resources. A good starting place is Basic Information on Grief.
- It may be helpful for you to read about people who are now Peer Grief Helpers.They tell the story of what their entire journey has been like.
- A private Facebook group moderated by SADOD’s partner, The Sun Will Rise, specializes in peer support for grief after death from substance use.
To learn more about and connect with any of our free peer grief support services, complete this form.
Meet SADOD’s Peer Grief Support Specialists
Kerry Bickford
Leslie Lagos
Melissa Lezynski
Don Lipstein
Aileen Lovejoy
Kerry Bickford is a retired Youth Development Educator (25 years) who became a certified peer grief helper following the death of her son, Nathan. She is the founding editor of VOICES, a monthly newsletter for people who are bereaved, and works as a Peer Grief Specialist for SADOD. Although she works with all adults over 18, her focus is grandparents and relative caregivers - including grandparents raising grandchildren - who have been deeply impacted by the overdose epidemic.
Kerry@pscpllc.net
Leslie Lagos is the director of The Sun Will Rise Foundation (TSWR), SADOD’s partner in delivering grief support in Massachusetts, where she oversees the expansion of in-person and virtual peer grief support meetings. Leslie founded the Timothy Patrick Morrissey (TPM) Memorial Fund in honor of her brother, who died from an overdose in 2013. She is a person in long-term recovery.
Leslie@thesunwillrise.org
Melissa was working as a Post Overdose Specialist when she lost her only biological son, Sean Steven Miller, on 9/13/2023. Two out of three of her children struggled with SUD and Sean lost his Battle just as his older sister was getting well.
Moving into the role of Peer Grief Support Specialist has been the best way to turn her pain into purpose while allowing herself to grieve the many losses she has experienced as well. Helping others in their grief journey is what life has prepared her for.
Melissa@sadod.org
Don Lipstein, CBFRLC, ACC, is a grief-focused professional who has been facilitating individual and group support for over 10 years. He is currently working with SADOD as a Peer Grief Support Program Coordinator. He founded Imagine Family Recovery LLC in 2020 and is continuing to offer his compassionate care to the newly bereaved. Don lost his oldest son, Joshua to suicide in 2011 after a long battle with alcohol and substance use.
Aileen Lovejoy is the mom of a son who suffered with the disease of addiction for 20+yrs and died on May 12th, 2013, Mother's day, from an overdose 2 days following his birthday. She co-facilitates the HALO 18 Grief Group in Worcester. Aileen volunteers as a group leader for grief support at the Carriage House, Worcester, and is a member of Team Sharing-MA. She is a Peer Grief Support Specialist and a Peer Grief Ally, providing one on one support to those who have loved one to the disease of addiction. Aileen is also a member of the Worcester DA's Opioid Task Force.
Don.Lipstein@gmail.com
Aileen@sadod.org
Meet the rest of the SADOD team here.