A Greene County organization continues to work toward reducing the number of suicides and removing the stigma around the sensitive topic.

The Greene County Suicide Prevention Coalition involves several individuals, including mental health and healthcare professionals, law enforcement, veterans affairs, religious leaders and others. Coordinator Lori Reynolds says the group started last year as part of a pilot program through her job with the Office of Veterans Affairs and the Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN) 23 for the Midwest Region. 

Reynolds notes that they are working on three goals. The first is to develop an autopsy team. When there is a suicide in the county, the autopsy team will contact family and friends to find out what the person was like leading up to their death to improve prevention work within the community. The next goal is to contact employers and provide training on recognizing the signs of suicide, managing them, preventing them from happening, and providing resources. The final goal is making sure all healthcare and mental health providers are using the same evidence-based suicide prevention tactics.

Reynolds acknowledges how well Greene County continues to work together.

“Greene County is amazing. You guys are so good about working together. There are a number of coalitions and task forces that get together – on a monthly or quarterly basis – to share resources and all of that. So this was just going to be one more way that you beautiful people in Greene County to come together and work together towards a common goal.”  

She adds, anyone interested in being a part of the coalition can contact her via email at lori.reynolds@va.gov or contact anyone who is a coalition member. To hear more from Reynolds about the coalition, listen to today’s Community State Bank in Paton Let’s Talk Greene County program.