“Back in mid March, 2020, the American Red Cross asked, ‘How can we help families affected by COVID?’ We decided to create a Virtual Family Assistance Center.” This is how Danel Lipparelli, a behavioral health volunteer with the Utah-Nevada region, remembers the early days of the Red Cross response to the global pandemic.

The center is designed to help people deal with their grief over COVID-related losses and provide them with the tools they needed to move forward. Front line workers can access individual and group emotional support to help them deal with stress. People who want to increase resiliency and help others can take the Psychological First Aid class through the center.

“We’ve been running 11 hour shifts every day since last March,” Lipparelli said. “Once callers talk with one of our spiritual care, behavioral health, or health services volunteers, that volunteer stays with the caller for all follow-up sessions. We want to hold people close as they go through the process.”

Sometimes the work involves making calls to coroners and funeral homes. “I spoke with a son and daughter, both in their early 20s, who had just lost both parents to COVID. They had no idea what to do,” Lipparelli recalled.

“Many people were upset because their loved ones went into the hospital and they never saw them again. They had no way to say goodbye. Sometimes we’re working with families who have lost multiple members. It’s so traumatic.” 

Center personnel provide emotional support and advocacy for grieving friends and families.Lipparelli mentions a wide range of services – all at no cost to callers – which are provided through the center: connecting people to funeral services, getting free burials, setting up virtual memorial services, providing referrals for other services available in local communities, and just generally helping people walk through the grief process.T

he work isn’t easy. Lipparelli is proud of what has been accomplished, and with what can be done going forward: “We built the way to do this [provide virtual emotional support and grief consoling] in the future.” 

The Red Cross Virtual Family Assistance Center can be accessed via this link: Virtual Family Assistance Center.