Youngsters and teens in the Bloomington community affected by suicide will have an outlet through a new support group coming in January 2015, according to a press release from the City of Bloomington Community and Family Resources Department.
“Currently, Monroe County only has a support group of this type for adults,” the news release reads, referring to a group known as Survivors of Suicide facilitated by social worker Ron Masters.
Nancy Woolery, health projects manager for the City of Bloomington, and Peter Link, licensed clinical social worker for Bloomington Meadows Hospital, saw a need for a similar support system for younger people. After attending a two-day facilitator training in Indianapolis, the duo began working to create such a program.
The training they attended was designed to teach interested adults how to create and facilitate the kinds of youth support groups Woolery and Link were interested in.
The point of this new youth support group, the release states, is to “provide strategies to deal with the impact of suicide, trauma and violent death on children, teens and their families and crisis response.” The release also notes that the group will provide a safe space for teens and children to “tell their stories about the suicide death that affected them to peers who understand and can share their experiences.”
This is necessary, according to the group, because people of this age generally do not know others who have experienced similar trauma.
“They often do not have a place or anyone with whom to share their grief,” according to the release.
The support group wants to emphasize that it is not a therapy group. It is a self-run support group that is meant to act as a new avenue for children and teens to express their grief and share their varied experiences.
The support group is described in the press release as “ongoing.” Participants can attend as many or few meetings as they would like to.
The adult support group, as well as the new youth support group, are both free.
Link said in the release that the training he received in Indianapolis with Woolery changed the way he looked at this situation.
“(It) was a very important training and enlightened both Nancy and I of the importance of suicide support for children and teens in our community,” he said.
Anicka Slachta
