The Four County Suicide Prevention Coalition has initiated a free-of-charge “Survivors After Suicide” support group.
Meetings are held monthly on the first Thursday of the month from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Four County ADAMhs Board office, T-761 State Route 66 south of Archbold across from Four County Career Center. A licensed independent social worker, Nancy Shannon, is the group’s facilitator.
The group’s goals are to provide comfort, encouragement and education to persons who have lost a loved one by suicide.
Comfort is simply an acknowledgement of the devastating pain that the survivor feels.
Encouragement means confirming that this pain and grief is normal. Support group participants can share that they have also experienced the same type of feelings.
The education component is about teaching healthy coping skills for the survivor as well as providing accurate information about suicide.
Survivors who attend the support group can expect to receive the following benefits.
•An understanding that other survivors of suicide experience similar emotions.
•A safe, nonjudgmental place to share emotions and questions.
•An opportunity to learn skills to deal with issues that are unique to survivors of suicide.
•Help in restoring trusting relationships that may have been shaken by a loved one’s suicide.
•Seeing how others who are further along in the grief process are coping.
•The opportunity to share and help others heal.
•A sense of empowerment for each person to work through the grief process in their own way.
•Hope that in time, things will get better than they are now.
•The friendship of persons who have experienced similar life-changing events, and
•A supportive and positive environment that can help restore the zest for life that can be lost after the death of a loved one by suicide.
For more information about the “Survivors After Suicide” support group, please call Pam Pflum at the Four County ADAMhs Board office at 419/267-3355, ext. 7 or pam@fourcountyadamhs.com. There is no need to RSVP to attend the meetings. The support group is funded by the Four County ADAMhs Board.