"Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors"

Lake County Suicide Prevention Task Force meeting today.

One of the topics we discussed (there were many) was my wanting to start a “first responders” program for family and friends surviving someone who died by suicide (called “survivors” in this field) here in Lake County. This sort of program has come up in 2 discussions with different individuals of late (about 2 different programs). It is time to move beyond the coincidence and act to get it started here.

One such program (one also thought of as a prototype) exists in Baton Rouge. A small team of trained suicide survivors and Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center staff go to the scene of suicide to provide information about available resources and “to be a breath of hope for the grieving survivors”. The goal is to let the survivors know that there are resources (and hope) available as soon after the death occurs as feasible.

The hope is that getting the survivors tied into help as soon as possible will ensure that they receive all of the benefit that such help can provide with grieving, adapting, moving forward, and surviving themselves.

I look forward to being able to provide this service here in Lake County.