Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors
DJ’s Alliance is Delaware’s LOSSTeam. It is an active postvention model concept created by Dr. Frank Campbell at the Baton Rouge Crisis and Trauma Center in 1998. He found that it typically took those who lost someone dear to them by suicide more than four years before they reached out to support. LOSSTeams significantly reduce that time and increase help-seeking.
LOSSTeams are found across the country and are made up of trained survivors and concerned community members who strive to connect with new loss survivors following a suicide death. Some teams go out to a scene; our Delaware team does not do this yet. Delaware LOSSTeam members are volunteers trained in Psychological First Aid, grief, shock, active listening, etc. They provide loss survivors with practical support and connection to resources and, most importantly, they provide an instillation of hope.
LOSSTeam members plant seeds of hope. By simply saying, “I lost a loved one to suicide,” a volunteer gives permission for the newly bereaved to use the word suicide, take a deep breath and know that support is here.