The Swiss Army Knife Approach to Aftercare: Why Funeral Homes Need More Than One Tool

“Funeral homes need a Swiss Army knife approach that provides different modalities
for different grieving styles and needs.”

One key doesn’t open every door. Yet when it comes to aftercare, many funeral homes hand families the same one or two resources: a therapist referral or a support group listing, and hope something fits. But we know that this doesn’t work for most families, yet we still do it. A Swiss Army knife succeeds not because any single blade is perfect, but because it provides the right tool for the moment at hand. Funeral homes should adopt this same philosophy when it comes to aftercare.

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR COMPREHENSIVE AFTERCARE

Aftercare isn’t just compassionate care, it’s smart busi ness. According to Johnson Consulting Group’s 2025 Trends and Insights Report, 71% of people choose a funeral home based on previous experience or recommendation. In an in dustry where referrals account for 26-48% of new business, depending on service type, the families you serve today di rectly shape your client families tomorrow.

Here’s the math that should keep every funeral director’s attention: research indicates that for every death, an average of nine individuals are bereaved (Verdery et al., 2020). With over 3.4 million deaths annually in the United States, that translates to more than 30 million newly bereaved people each year, each one a potential future client, referral source, or community advocate.

When you provide meaningful aftercare to a grieving fam ily, you’re not serving one person. You’re serving nine. And those nine people will remember which funeral home support ed them in their darkest hours when it comes time to make future arrangements for themselves or for others they love.

Yet despite the clear opportunity, only a small percentage of funeral homes provide robust aftercare or grief services. This is a lost opportunity, both to help the families you serve and to build sustainable business growth.

THE LIMITATIONS OF TRADITIONAL AFTERCARE APPROACHES

For decades, funeral home aftercare has operated with a limited toolkit. When a family completes services with a funeral home, they typically get offered two primary options: a list of local therapists or a referral to community support groups. These approaches are valuable and evidence-based, but they’re not for everyone. 

The 55-year-old man who just lost a parent most likely won’t attend therapy. The 70-year-old widow living in a rural community may not want to drive at night or may not have access to a grief counselor within 50 miles. The Span ish-speaking mother whose child died traumatically may not be able to find culturally responsive care. The sandwich generation adult, juggling work, family, caregiving, and loss, probably doesn’t have time for weekly appointments.

And yet, funeral homes often measure aftercare success by whether families were given a resource list. When people don’t engage with those resources, we assume they’re fine rather than acknowledging that our limited menu of options simply may not meet their needs.

A PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH TO GRIEF CARE 

Adopting a Swiss Army knife approach means embracing a public health model of grief care (Aoun et al., 2012) that recognizes different levels of need and different points of entry:

Level 0: Grief Literacy and Awareness — Educational materials, community awareness, and preventive resources that normalize grief and provide foundational information. This is where everyone starts. (100% of the be reaved population)

Level 1: General Support & Information — Self paced resources, educational workshops, and technolo gy-based support (such as texting) that provide structure without requiring intensive clinical involvement. (60% of the bereaved population)

Level 2: Extra Support — Support groups and short term peer counseling that provide higher levels of support with some clinical oversight. (30% of the bereaved population)

Level 3: Intensive Specialized Care — Individual therapy for those with complex grief, suicidal ideation, or co-occurring conditions. (10% of the bereaved population)

For years, referrals have focused on Level 2-3 care, where only 10-30% of people fall. This means the majority of fami lies you serve—the 60-70% who need Level 0-1 support—are potentially leaving your care without meaningful resources that actually fit their lives.

THE UNDERUTILIZED POWER OF TEXT-BASED SUPPORT

There’s a critical tool missing from most funeral homes’ aftercare kits - one that research data and real-world adop tion across 61 countries show to be profoundly effective at reaching populations who don’t utilize other forms of support (Levesque et al., 2023; 2024).

Focused text-based grief support is emerging as one of the most impactful and cost-effective aftercare interventions available, and yet it remains vastly underutilized in funer al home aftercare programs. If funeral homes are utilizing text-based support, it often doesn’t focus squarely on grief support. And considering what the data tells us about com munication preferences: text messages have a 98% open rate compared to just 20% for emails, and one-third of Americans over 65 now prefer texting to phone calls- when we focus on providing grief care long-term, the return on investment shows up in referrals and repeat business. 

Traditional aftercare programs might include offerings such as newsletters, memorial events, and support group re ferrals, but a comprehensive funeral home aftercare should include accessible, multilingual, clinically informed text support. Because at the end of the day, it is about reaching people who need support. 

Consider what we know about hard-to-reach populations:

• Men represent one of the most underserved demographics in grief care. Men rarely attend support groups and often drop out of therapy. In fact, a recent study showed the overall dropout rate from therapy was 44.8%, of which 26.6% accessed therapy once and did not return (Seidler et al., 2021). But when men engage with text-based support, most complete a full year of support, and the response is powerful. 

• Older adults over 65 often face mobility challenges, transportation barriers, and generational stigma around mental health services. 

• Rural populations face geographic isolation and limited access to specialized grief services—often the very com munities funeral homes serve. Text-based support tran scends these barriers entirely. 

• Non-English speakers encounter language barriers that prevent access to culturally responsive care. Text-based programs can deliver support in 28 languages, meeting people in their native tongue. 

• Traumatic loss survivors often find that well-meaning sup port falls short of understanding their unique experience. 

• Cultural stigma can prevent people from seeking out traditional forms of support. Texting is a private way to seek support. 

WHY TEXT-BASED SUPPORT WORKS FOR FUNERAL HOME AFTERCARE

Text-based grief support succeeds because it addresses the barriers that keep families from engaging with tradition al aftercare:

• Privacy: No one needs to know you’re receiving support

• Accessibility: Works across geography, mobility limita tions, and scheduling constraints

• Personalization: Messages can be tailored to loss type, relationship, and timeline

• Control: Grievers read and re-read messages when they’re ready

• Low-barrier entry: No appointment scheduling, no com mitment to showing up weekly, no pressure to respond— support simply arrives

• Scalability: Reaches thousands of families at a fraction of the cost of one-on-one counseling

• Persistence: Messages provide support for as long as need ed—whether 6 months, 1 year, or 3 years

• Connection to your funeral home: Ongoing touchpoints that maintain the relationship you’ve built with families

THE CASE FOR COMPREHENSIVE AFTERCARE 

Grief is not uniform, timing is not linear, and what helps one person at moments after a loss may be different from what they need months later. Funeral homes need a Swiss Army knife approach that provides different modalities for different grieving styles and needs.

Someone might need Level 1 support immediately after the service (texting and education), Level 2 support (support groups) during the first year, and then Level 3 support (thera py) later on. Or they might only ever need Levels 1 and 2—and that’s okay. The goal isn’t to move everyone up the ladder of intensity. The goal is to meet families where they are and pro vide access to support that fits their needs, when they need it.

Johnson Consulting Group’s research suggests that grief support is increasingly becoming a lead generator for funeral homes. The families who experience meaningful aftercare become advocates. They tell others. They return when the next loss occurs. They remember who cared for them when no one else did.

MOVING FORWARD 

If your funeral home’s mission is to provide meaningful support and reduce isolation for the families you serve, ask yourself: Does your aftercare programming reflect the diversity of your community’s needs? Are we offering tools that work for the 55-year-old man who won’t come to a support group? The 70-year-old widow who lives an hour from the nearest therapist? The Spanish-speaking parent who needs culturally attuned care?

If text-based support isn’t part of your Swiss Army knife yet, the data is clear: you’re missing a tool that reaches fami lies who aren’t engaging with other aftercare resources, and families are telling us, in their own words, that this approach is meeting them where they are, speaking to their unique situations, and quite literally providing a lifeline.

Every family you serve represents, on average, nine be reaved individuals. Nine people who will remember your funeral home, not just for how you handled the service, but for how you supported them in the months and years that followed. In an industry built on reputation and referral, that kind of care is both compassionate and essential.

The Swiss Army knife approach isn’t about doing more for the sake of doing more. It’s about recognizing that grief is as diverse as the families who walk through your doors, and that your responsibility as a funeral professional is to offer multiple pathways to healing—knowing that the right tool at the right moment can make all the difference.