I’m making up a thing called the Grief Research Institute. My brain needs to have an entity. Before I incorporate, before I make a 501(c)3, I need to have a place.
The mission is to create grief-related content that is research-informed, experientially-validated, community-rooted, and practically helpful.
We’ll do this with
- Consistent review of the existing literature.
- New research for grief-related organizations.
- New public research.
- Consistent publication of resources on YouTube
- A growing bibliography of grief research.
This is rooted in the concept of grief literacy: having words, concepts, skills, processes, and resources as a person, family, and community in order to be helpful to people in time of loss, particularly death.
The questions I’m working on, among others:
- How helpful are memorial services (or other public and private rituals) for which people?
- How could we help friends and family be as helpful as possible?
- How can churches be as helpful as possible for grieving people?
- How can we improve the grief literacy of Allen County (IN)
Who I am:
- Hospital chaplain for Parkview Health, retired 12/31/2025 after 9 years, 11 months.
- Researcher with Arbor Research Group. Projects included “The Church and COVID-19”
- Writer of weekly newsletter – “Finding Words in Hard Times“
- Author of This is Hard: What I say when loved ones die and Giving a life meaning: How to lead funerals, memorial services, and celebrations of life.
- Lead author of “What bereaved people have found helpful following death of a loved one” by Jon Swanson PhD, Mindy Flanagan PhD et al. (parkviewhealth.org)
I’m available for conversation about grief at jon.swanson@socialmediachaplain.com
Grief literacy helps us all. 