The University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital Grief Services program supports pediatric patients and families experiencing grief and loss. This may occur because of a diagnosis or hospitalization, when end of life is imminent, or after a death has occurred.
Supporting your child and family
Each person experiences their own unique journey of grief, and we are here to offer support, empathy, and hope, even in your darkest hours. Along with other health care professionals who provide end of life care (social work, spiritual services, child life), we offer a comprehensive program to support your child and family. Some of the services offered through Grief Services include:
Support when grief and loss arise due to a child's diagnosis or hospitalization
Cherished Portraits, a volunteer photography service that provides photo shoots for children with life threatening illnesses, facing end of life, or who have died.
Support for patients and their families during the dying process
Grief resources and mementos
Offering bereavement services
At UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital, we believe in offering grieving families reassurance that their children's lives mattered, and that they have not been forgotten. Bereavement services offered include:
Acknowledgement of death through condolence cards and other mailings
A yearly UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital Service of Remembrance, held every July to honor the lives of beloved children, gone too soon.
