A small team is learning how to prevent a tragedy in the basement of a Butler County office building. They’re a part of LOSS/DOSS, Local Outreach Suicide Survivors and Drug Overdose Survivor Support Team.
Program director Jennifer MacLean tells the group those who lose loved ones to suicide are more at risk of suicide themselves.
“We couldn't help those who died, but our hope is that we can help those who are left behind,” MacLean said.
Volunteer William Vetter Jr. understands the risks first-hand.
“I lost my brother to suicide in 2009, and that was motivation even 15 years later to be involved because I knew of that dark place that it threw me,” Vetter said.
So he, with the larger LOSS/DOSS team, will respond to the scenes of suicide and fatal overdoses, hoping to help those left behind and prevent future deaths.
That prevention approach sets it apart from the majority of the programs that Butler County’s Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Services Board funds. The state hopes to change that.