Overdose Loss Support - The Beading Hearts - Free Peer Group, NY

The Beading Hearts is a bereavement support community built for one of grief’s most stigmatized corners: losing someone you love to a drug overdose or substance use. Founded on Long Island, New York, the group’s motto — healing broken hearts one bead at a time — captures its gentle, peer-driven approach to a traumatic kind of loss.

What to Expect

Support groups meet weekly, in person on Long Island and through online meetings for those farther away or not ready to walk through a door. The groups are peer run and professionally supported — facilitated by people who have lived this loss themselves, with professional backing to keep the space safe. Members share their stories, their loved ones’ names, and the complicated mix of grief, anger, guilt, and love that follows an overdose death.

Who This Group Is For

Parents, siblings, partners, children, and friends coping with the life-altering effects of losing a loved one to substance use or an overdose death. There is no requirement except the loss itself — and no judgment about how it happened.

Why Peer Support Works

Overdose loss carries a stigma that can silence grievers; many feel they can’t speak their loved one’s cause of death aloud. In a room (or video call) full of people who carry the same loss, that silence breaks. Peer support normalizes traumatic grief, makes space for complicated emotions, and turns isolation into community. Research on bereavement after substance-related deaths consistently points to specialized peer groups as a key source of healing.

How to Join

Contact The Beading Hearts at (631) 278-1914 or info@beadinghearts.org for current meeting times and locations, or reach out through beadinghearts.org. Groups meet weekly; newcomers are welcomed warmly.