Blue Ridge Hospice has received a two-year, $340,000 research grant from the New York Life Foundation to study the effectiveness of a grief adventure program that uses a custom-made tabletop role-playing game similar to Dungeons & Dragons designed for bereaved adolescents and young adults.
The “Adventures Through Grief” program uses a therapeutic approach developed by Games to Grow, a nonprofit that uses tabletop games for healing, education and community growth. The approach was adapted by Blue Ridge Hospice to specifically address grief and was made possible through a 2022 award of a $30,000 “Adventures Through Grief” grant from the New York Life Foundation, according to a news release.
Throughout the program, participants use creative social skills to tackle dangerous imaginary obstacles and challenges. By exploring challenges in a low-risk gaming environment and guided by a staff of trained and certified grief counselors, the “Game to Grow” model aims to create opportunities to learn new coping skills and enable participants to express their grief in an indirect, non-threatening way, the release said.
“We want to find innovative ways to support young people who are socially isolated and working through grief, especially those who may be hesitant to seek traditional counseling,” Tina Thomas, licensed clinical social worker and child and family grief support coordinator at Blue Ridge Hospice, said in a press release. “Through a unique, therapeutically adapted tabletop RPG module developed specifically for this program and to provide grief counseling, we foster a nurturing environment where creativity and social interaction blend together, fertile ground for a deep healing journey.”
Blue Ridge Hospice has invited licensed clinical psychologists Elizabeth Kilmer and Jared Kilmer to lead a comprehensive, publishable study on the effectiveness of tabletop role-playing games in reducing grief in teens and young adults. According to officials with the organization, the project will fill a gap in existing research by evaluating applicability and impact on target populations through standardized assessments of grief, social isolation, and loneliness.
Blue Ridge Hospice will select up to eight partner grief centers and organizations across the nation to provide 20 hours of facilitator training and implement the 10-week program for up to 24 grief professionals. Partner sites will be paid $15,000 for program implementation and ongoing consulting and will be required to collect and submit data for research purposes. The application period for partner sites is open through July 31 at BlueRidgeHospice.org/ATG-Apply, with a question-and-answer session to be held on July 29 at 3 p.m.
Blue Ridge Hospice is a not-for-profit serious illness and end-of-life care provider serving the northern Shenandoah Valley and northwest Virginia. The provider serves Winchester and Clark, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Page, Rappahannock, Shenandoah and Warren counties.
