When youth and families come together during the grieving process, we have found that common language and terminology can help to foster a culture of empathy and connection.  In collaboration with Eluna's Camp Erin Bereavement Team and Suicide Grief Support Committee, we have carefully crafted this resource to define five types of loss using supportive and youth-friendly language.

Click here to download Eluna's Type of Loss handout.

Death from an Illness:

Death from an illness is when someone is very sick and their body stops working. Some examples may be when someone’s heart stops working due to a heart condition or when someone becomes very sick with cancer or covid. Some people with an illness will get better, but some don’t.

Death from an Accident:

A death by accident is when something goes wrong when it is not meant to and someone dies. Some examples of accidents may be a car crash or falling down. A death by accident is sudden and unexpected. Sometimes we may learn what caused an accident and sometimes we may never know.

Death from Suicide:

Suicide is when someone makes their body stop working. When someone dies by suicide, they may have really big feelings, a lot of pain in their body or heart, or their brain was not able to think clearly. Some people believe that the only way to escape their pain or solve a big problem is to make their own body stop working. Big feelings can often make it hard to remember other ways to get better and see all of the help that is available to them.

Death from Homicide:

There are people in this world who might make a decision to hurt someone else on purpose. Homicide is when a person does something that makes someone else die. Illegally killing a person on purpose is also called murder. It can be difficult to understand why someone would want to cause others harm like this.

Death from Addiction / Substance Use Disorder:

Death from a substance use disorder is when a person mistakenly used the wrong substance or more of the substance than the body can handle and it caused the body to stop working. A substance use disorder is a mental illness – meaning that someone’s brain is sick. This type of disorder is commonly referred to as ‘addiction’.