MHA of Southeast Florida, has been in Broward County since 1957, and we are primarily a referral agency for mental health programs.

And we also offer the Broward connections.

Org linked on our website, which provides lots of resources for mental health and community services in the county.

And we also have the Nine Muses Art center, which is a drop in center.

Anyone 18 and over is welcome to come and take some classes in art, music, creative writing, you know, lots of different creative outlet classes, and they also run support groups.

And the only requirement is that you have a mental health diagnosis.

MHA is also an agency that emphasizes peer support.

It was a natural fit for the loss team to be housed with Mental Health America of Southeast Florida.

And that perspective, the loss team, which stands for local outreach to suicide survivors, more particularly loss survivors those who've lost someone to suicide, is based on a national model and MHA of Southeast Florida saw the value and the need of that in the community and worked with the Broward County Suicide Prevention Coalition to bring the loss team to Broward County.

We are the only active and funded loss team in the state of Florida.

Studies have shown that before a loss, teams are implemented in the community.

It could take about four and a half years for our family to reach out for help because of so much stigma involved with the suicide death.

Our goal is to reduce that to an immediate response as possible.

And studies show that that time gap has actually reduced from four and a half years to about 43 days in areas where there is a loss team.

It was important for the Broward loss team, all their staff and all their volunteers, to have a lived experience with suicide loss.

All the staff on the loss team and volunteers have lost a loved one to suicide.

We work in partnership with law enforcement.

In certain cases, they'll call us out and we'll arrive at the scene, usually with two survivors, and we'll get some information if we can, before we get out to the scene to understand the family makeup or who is left behind.

With the method of death was.

And then we'll do our best to curate a match of at least one person on the team to have had at least as the closest experience as possible to relate to that family or loved one left behind because of the death being so stigmatized and sudden and violent and traumatic.

A lot of what our role is, is to appear on scene or get there as soon as possible, and just by saying I too lost a loved one to suicide helps to break down that stigma.

And you see that.

You see it in the in the families and those left behind.

When you approach them and just utter those words, it gives permission to that person to talk about suicide, to talk about their loved one.

And we all know that we're very vulnerable in that point in time.

It’s not just talking about the suicide death, but then suicide prevention measures, because we are a postvention program, which means our goal is to instill hope and and prevent further suicides after suicide.

About two thirds of survivors of suicide loss will idiot suicide or or attempt or exhibit suicide behaviors.

It's such a complicated loss.

Daily functioning decreases.

You know, folks might have trouble going back to work or back to school.

And, you know, it could just create a whole domino effect in the aftermath.

We really want to be there to help shine a little bit of light on the path that those who left behind don't even foresee a path, don't even know a path exists.

We’re there just to help shine a little bit of that light, help them get on that path of recovery and healing.

I lost my spouse, Nicole, to suicide on Christmas Eve 2019, and I found her so as anyone can possibly imagine.

It's such an unfathomable experience.

You struggle with the whys.

You're always faced with the whys and these whys.

You're probably never going to have an answer to the why, it's like having a puzzle and never having all the pieces to complete the puzzle.

Suicide loss.

Survivors also struggle with the coulda, woulda, shoulda's, and you're constantly replaying your last conversation.

And those those those last moments with your loved one over and over again.

And your mind is going to play tricks on you.

You know, things like having an argument or noticing maybe that they weren't eating or sleeping just become, well, they we've had an argument before.

They weren't maybe eating another time before.

They didn't kill themselves then.

It’s trying to work through all of that.

And having the power of the peer support really is important because you could talk about these things with others.

And but what I found as a suicide loss survivor in the work that I do, Speaking with others who have gone through a similar experience makes all the difference in the world.

Nicole and I had both decided to change careers shortly before she died, so she went back to school for nursing, and I was contemplating going back to school for a mental health counseling in a particular art therapy, which kind of brought together some of my other careers that I've had as an adult.

Um, so when I found Nicole, it was confirmation that I was going to then turn my pain into purpose and fully commit to going back to school to become a mental health counselor and art therapist.

I find art therapy so powerful because, you know, you might have heard terms like, you know, a picture is worth a thousand words or words cannot describe.

And that's where art comes in for me.

It's another language to use.

It's another language to express emotions, to work through emotions.

It's also an opportunity to bring form to the pain or to the anguish where otherwise words can't really do.

Bringing that form so that you could see it, address it, befriend it, work with it, and move forward with it.

I'm honored and privileged that Mental Health America of Southeast Florida will be exhibiting my artwork in October, and it's going to tell the story of my journey of finding Nicole, the grief work that I had done after losing her, and then leading up to also some of the post-traumatic growth that I've experienced.

It's a heart, clearly.

I had mentioned that Nicole was going to nursing school, she had all these study guides posted on the wall about, you know, anatomical hearts and things like that.

I was inspired by not just the physical aspect of the heart, but again, the symbolic aspect.

And the heart is a symbol too, for forgiveness.

One day I had found a big box of Nicole's nail polish, and I knew I didn't want to just get rid of it, so I added her nail polish to the paint.

So now I've memorialized her in the art to carry her forward with me forever.

What I've learned in my studies through Postvention work is those that show the most post-traumatic growth have four areas kind of really illuminated in their life.

One is family.

You know, family is important.

Having family, whether it's biological family or, you know, your friends as family.

However, family is not enough.

Also having a faith practice and sort of a spiritual component to your life, having a curiosity and an intention to seek joy in life and then also helping others.

I believe that my work as a mental health counselor and art therapist, and helping others really is what helps me in my healing journey, and it helps me honor Nicole's life and continue with her legacy.