Recruiting

Interventions Comparison

Sponsor:

Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Code:

NCT06136260

Conditions

Bereavement

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

CommunityRx-Bereavement

General Bereavement Support Information

Study Details

Brief summary:

Parents of children who die traumatically or unexpectedly from things like suicide or an overdose suffer from mental and physical health problems and can experience massive disruptions in their family life. For about half of these parents, the first, and sometimes only, interactions they have with the healthcare system when their child dies are with a medical examiner or coroner (hereafter 'ME'). But MEs have little to no training in helping grieving families, and there are no standards guiding medical examiners or coroners on how or even if they should help grieving families. This gap leaves parents to find the help they need on their own. This research will test two different strategies for addressing this gap in the healthcare system.

Conditions

Bereavement

Study ID

NCT06136260

Start date

Mar 4, 2024

Status verified date

Jul, 2026

Completion date

Feb, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jul, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Parents or caregivers of ME cases involving a person < 25 years old from one of the following offices: Cook County Medical Examiners, Lake County Coroners, DuPage County Coroner, Will County Coroner, McHenry County Coroner, Kane County Coroner, Peoria County Coroner
  • Parents or caregivers who provide permission to the ME to be referred to Missing Pieces
  • Parent or caregivers who are referred to Missing Pieces by a ME
  • Parents or caregivers able to read and communicate in English or Spanish

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Parents or caregivers unable to read or communicate in English or Spanish
  • Parents or caregivers under the age of 18 years old

Study Design

Enrollment

2000 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Health Services Research

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: CommunityRx-Bereavement (CRx-B)

active comparator: General Bereavement Support Information (GBSI)

Interventions

CommunityRx-Bereavement

The medical examiner or coroner will refer parents to an organization called Missing Pieces. Missing Pieces does not deliver healthcare services to grieving families; rather, Missing Pieces helps families find grief services in their community.

For CRx-B, a Grief Navigator from Missing Pieces will text and/or call the parent after receiving the referral; share information about grief and support resources; learn what resources the parent needs for themselves and their family; send the parent a personalized list of grief and social support community resources called a HealtheRx via text, email, or mail; and plan future text message communications with bidirectional functionality and, if requested, subsequent calls or texts from the Grief Navigator to occur at least 3, 6, and 12 months after the child's death.

General Bereavement Support Information

The medical examiner or coroner will refer parents to an organization called Missing Pieces. Missing Pieces does not deliver healthcare services to grieving families; rather, Missing Pieces helps families find grief services in their community.

For GBSI, Missing Pieces sends parents a unidirectional text message providing a link to a webpage with a general list of grief resources (e.g., support groups) and information about grief and bereavement within two weeks of the child's death and again 3, 6, and 12 months after the child's death.

Primary outcome measure

  • Parent Self-efficacy for Finding Resources [ Time Frame: ~6.5 months after child's death ]
  • Complicated Grief [ Time Frame: ~6.5 months after child's death ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Kelly Michelson, MD, MPH

312-227-4800kmichelson@luriechildrens.org

Carolyn Sutter, PhD

312-227-7059csutter@luriechildrens.org

Locations

Cook County Medical Examiner's Office

Recruiting

Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60612

Will County Coroner's Office

Recruiting

Joliet, Illinois, United States, 60432

Peoria County Coroner's Office

Recruiting

Peoria, Illinois, United States, 61603

Kane County Coroner's Office

Recruiting

Saint Charles, Illinois, United States, 60175

Lake County Coroner's Office

Recruiting

Waukegan, Illinois, United States, 60085

DuPage County Coroner's Office

Recruiting

Wheaton, Illinois, United States, 60187

McHenry County Coroner's Office

Recruiting

Woodstock, Illinois, United States, 60098

More Information

Sponsor

Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Last update posted

Jul 8, 2026

Last verified

Jul, 2026

Keywords

  • grief
  • caregivers
  • community resources
  • pediatric
  • self-efficacy
  • coroners and medical examiners

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago on 2026-07-08.