Reframing Bereavement Care with St. Croix Hospice [Case Study]
For most hospice programs, bereavement outreach has followed the same script for decades: a letter goes out, a newsletter gets mailed, and the team waits. There's rarely a way to know if a family opened the envelope, let alone whether the message was helpful or comforting. That gap between sending support and knowing if it landed has quietly shaped grief programs for years.
In a recent conversation with nanaCONNECT - BEREAVE users, bereavement workflows before BEREAVE were described as heavy on paper, hard to scale, and nearly impossible to measure. Feedback came in occasional bursts: a returned envelope, a comment on a follow-up call, a survey that trickled back weeks later. Beyond that, most programs were working in the dark.
That's exactly the gap BEREAVE was built to close, and the feedback from teams using it tells the story better than we can.
Easier communication paired with lower cost was one of the many consistent themes that came up in our conversation. Teams that had spent years coordinating mailing lists, tracking returned mail, and managing third-party newsletter vendors are now getting real-time responses and feedback instead of silence.
Lea Pascotto, Manager of Adult Bereavement at Avow, noted:
"The connection that our bereaved have has improved, even before they actually walk through the doors of the Center for Grief Support."
One large hospice agency additionally described how a growing multi-state footprint had made their paper newsletter process genuinely unsustainable at the director level. BEREAVE gave them a way to scale this outreach without scaling the administrative burden alongside it.
Texting families through a loss isn't an obvious move, and several teams told us their staff pushed back at first. DeeDee Henderson, Mission Officer at Agape Care Group, was candid about that hesitation:
"We have a pretty big grief support team. Half were really worried about the technology part. And, you know, with all of the positive feedback and with the education, people took hold of it and just really appreciate it."
That shift from doubt to buy-in showed up across nearly every customer we spoke with—some of which even admitted to being skeptical of BEREAVE themselves prior to implementation. Many had concerns about whether a text message could carry the same weight as a handwritten note or a phone call. However, once staff started seeing the responses come in, that concern faded fast and turned them into champions of the solution.
Some of the most impactful stories to come out of our conversation with BEREAVE customers centered on birthday and anniversary messages. Jim McClure, Director of Grief Support Services at Agape Care Group, shared one that stayed with the whole group:
“One response said, 'You're the only person to recognize my husband's birthday. Not even his own family remembered. Thank you.' It was pretty powerful.”
Other BEREAVE customers shared similar sentiments about the incredible impact of the birthday and anniversary messages on grieving families, with some hesitant to use the feature at first and thinking it may be too much. But when they tried it out, they were met with emotional responses that helped strengthen bonds with their bereaved. Now, customers are thinking out-of-the-box about how they can use these messages on holidays and other important dates to better support their families through loss.
Moments like these reflect why BEREAVE was built the way it is. Automated doesn't have to mean impersonal. A well-timed message to a grieving individual on a hard day, like a loved one’s birthday, can matter more than an entire newsletter.
Beyond individual check-ins, teams are using BEREAVE to connect families with the resources they need most. Dayna McAllister and Leigh Merrihew from Mission Healthcare's bereavement team described what happened when they refreshed their website and sent a broadcast message to share it:
“The instant connection to our bereaved through the BEREAVE platform is amazing. When we updated our website to share more resources and support, we sent out a broadcast message, announcing the change and within seconds we saw the results. Our bereaved were clicking on the new links and interacting with our new content within seconds. We are grateful to have a platform that connects us with our bereaved in this way and be able to track the results that continue to build over time.”
That kind of immediate, visible engagement was a recurring theme across our conversation. Hospice bereavement teams talked about converting long-form newsletter content into landing pages, sending shorter texts that link out to grief resources, support groups, and event details, as well as utilizing the broadcast messaging feature for everything from memorial services to holiday outreach.
One hospice agency also noted that broadcast messages have helped boost attendance at their annual memorial services and local support groups, giving them a direct line to the families most likely to show up.
During the conversation, every customer described how little feedback that bereavement programs received before BEREAVE. Leigh Merrihew, Chaplain Supervisor and Bereavement Coordinator at Mission Healthcare, joyfully described the shift in her own weekly routine:
“The thing I really enjoyed about BEREAVE is how much positive feedback we get. We never got that before unless we were doing a follow-up call, and every week I open up BEREAVE, kind of hold my breath, like, 'What's going to be there?' 20 positive messages. I leave them in my queue. I don't even clear them because it's just so nice to see them there. It's really heartwarming.”
Avow’s Manager of Adult Bereavement, Lea Pascotto, sees that same feedback loop opening doors that used to stay closed:
“The regularity of the outgoing texts encourages bereaved to pick up the phone and call us, or it invites bereaved to simply reply back so that we may then contact them… It opens up that window of relationship. When grief is raw and you don't feel like talking to anyone, you're not wanting to pick up the phone and call a stranger. Now there is that element of connectivity that makes this process so much less intimidating.”
That feedback hasn’t just been meaningful to families and grief support staff at agencies using BEREAVE. It's changing how bereavement programs are seen internally. DeeDee Henderson noted:
"This really does give visibility. It helps demonstrate the value of grief support."
Our other customers echoed that point directly: several hospice bereavement teams said BEREAVE data now shows up in leadership meetings, survey readiness conversations, and referral source discussions, giving bereavement programs a seat at the table they didn't always have. Leigh Merrihew summed up BEREAVE’s impact:
“BEREAVE elevates the visibility of what we're doing as a bereavement team, which did not exist before.”
For St. Croix Hospice, the value goes beyond any single metric. A former VP of Care Services explained why the personalization and branding matters as much as the automation itself:
“The biggest ROI goes beyond the insights from text messaging—it's the ability to personalize and brand our bereavement support. Because every message is specific to St. Croix Hospice, families are far more engaged than they would be with generic outreach. BEREAVE has helped us deliver the individualized support families truly need.”
Director of Care Services Alyssa Grythe summed up what that engagement has revealed:
“The feedback from these text messages has been eye-opening. What started with hesitation turned into powerful insight—families are sharing detailed experiences and gratitude for our team. This instant feedback helps us personalize care and continuously improve our services.”
BEREAVE additionally reduced monthly mailings by 93% and boosted overall engagement for St. Croix Hospice. Read their full BEREAVE story in our case study.
Across every customer we heard from, the story is remarkably consistent. Bereavement support doesn't have to be a one-way mailing that disappears into silence.
Through BEREAVE, hospice teams are seeing real responses, tracking real engagement, and building real relationships with the families they serve—all while giving leadership the visibility to see the impact of grief support for themselves.
See how BEREAVE can transform the way your hospice bereavement team supports grieving families by booking a personalized, expert-led demo today.