title: A self-help program for widows as an independent community service.
abstract: Community Contacts for the Widowed, a self-help group in Toronto, offers individual and group counseling and volunteer work to widows. Beginning as a demonstration project funded by the provincial health ministry, the program became an independent charitable organization in 1976. Like many new self-help groups, the program employs peers who receive training in helping their clients by establishing a one-to-one supportive relationship. These peers, called widow contacts, also arrange group sessions and conduct community education on behalf of the program. Although reliance on a self-referral process limits the number of lower-class, immigrant, and other widows unwilling to reach out for help, since 1976 the program has helped more than 1500 women through their bereavement.
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002170:Canada; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010379:Peer Group; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group; D012657:Self-Help Groups