How we handle your family's information

Plain language first. The formal notice of privacy practices follows it, because a grief program that holds your child's name is health information and is treated that way.

What we collect

From you, at sign-up: your name and contact details, your teen's first and last name, age and gender, who died and how, your address for the mailed kit, and when you'd like week one to begin.
From the program: what your teen does in the game — the statements they sort, the ratings they give, the feelings they pick, the memories they keep in the jar — and the short check-ins you answer each week.
From screening: the brief grief and stress questionnaires your teen answers at the start, the middle, the end, and three months on.

What we do with it

Run the program: unlock worlds, send the week's page, and let your guide see how the week landed so they can reach out when something needs a person.
Keep your teen safe: certain answers, and certain words in the jar, raise a flag the same day to your guide and to the licensed clinician who backs them.
Learn whether it works: with your permission, a copy with names, dates of birth, and addresses removed goes into a research set. You can say no to this and still take part.

Your teen's own words stay fenced. What they type in the jar, the thought they add at the river, the feeling they name in their own words: those are stored because they are the point, and they are visible only to clinicians and administrators. Guides at partner sites see totals, flags, and your check-ins, never the child's own text.

Who can see it

Your guide at the grief center, hospice, or clinic that enrolled you, and only families at that site.
The licensed clinician who backs your guide, for flags and for anything you ask to talk about.
The program team at the Trauma and Grief Center who run the servers and the study.
Nobody else. We do not sell, share, or advertise with any of it.

How it is protected

The database is encrypted at rest, and the key is held separately from the machine that stores it.
Every staff sign-in takes a password and a code from a phone. Every look at a named record is logged.
Encrypted backups are kept for thirteen months, then deleted. Messages to you travel only through providers who have signed the agreements the law requires.

Your choices

Ask to see what we hold about your family, correct it, or have it deleted, by writing to the address below.
Withdraw from the program at any time. What was played stays in the record; nothing new is collected.
Say no to the research copy without losing the program.

Notice of privacy practices

This notice describes how medical information about your child may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.

Our duties. We are required by law to keep protected health information private, to give you this notice, and to follow it. We will tell you promptly if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your information.

How we may use and disclose information. For treatment, meaning running the program and coordinating with the clinician who backs your guide; for operations, meaning keeping the service working and safe; and for research, only with your written permission, in a de-identified form. We do not use your information for payment, since the program is free to families. Any other use requires your written authorization, which you may revoke in writing at any time.

Your rights. To inspect and receive a copy of your child's record; to request a correction; to request restrictions on certain uses; to request confidential communication by a particular channel; to receive an accounting of disclosures; and to receive a paper copy of this notice.

Complaints. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated you may file a complaint with us at the address below, or with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

Changes to this notice. We may change this notice and the changes will apply to information we already hold. The current notice is always at this address.

Contact. Privacy officer, Grief Galaxy, Trauma and Grief Center. privacy@griefgalaxy.com. Effective 2026-09-02.