COVID-19 forced grief support groups online; a year later, they’re still waiting

Tiffany Gibson
6 min readMay 27, 2021
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It was March 5, 2020, and a local Philadelphia chapter of The Compassionate Friends grief support group had just wrapped up its monthly meeting at Temple University Hospital. When chapter leader Marvella McDaniel left the basement classroom that night, she never could have expected that it would be their last in-person gathering for over a year.

Five days later, Philadelphia reported its first coronavirus case, and the next day, the World Health Organization declared the virus a “pandemic.” Daily life came to a halt. Some states shut down bars, restaurants and public venues, and enforced masks and social distancing. Other states remained opened, not requiring masks or testing.

COVID-19 cases and deaths in the U.S. soon began to rise. Fear eventually followed, along with anxiety and depression.

With meetings now canceled, and the Boyer Pavilion at Temple converted into a COVID-19 hospital, McDaniel began making one-on-one calls and FaceTiming group members to check on them. Aside from discussing their grief, she noticed people also needed to talk about their experiences during the pandemic. For instance, members who didn’t have a car and had to take the bus became very stressed to commute because others riders didn’t always wear masks.

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Tiffany Gibson

Former journalist living in LA. Writes about mental health, substance abuse, medications, treatments and therapies. Major info nerd and proud of it.