Meghan Francone, Executive Director of OHA

“Human connections and human conversations are suicide prevention,” said Meghan Francone, Executive Director of Open Heart Advocates, Memorial Regional Health’s crisis services program. “Not having conversations is lethal.”

In 2010, Francone’s brother-in-law, Austin Mills, died by suicide. He was a freshman at Moffat County High School. He was 15.

At the time, Francone was 25. Growing up, she’d lost friends to suicide. She’d also attempted suicide herself. But after Austin died, she realized that “just hoping things would change is not enough.” That’s when she decided to become actively involved in suicide prevention.

The Role of Open Heart Advocates

OHA’s 46 employees provide many crisis-oriented community services in Moffat County. They support domestic-violence and sex-trafficking victims. They assist families facing immigration and legal issues. They respond to sexual-assault crimes, to support victims and coordinate forensic exams. They help patients who are on mental-health holds in the emergency room.

And they work with a number of other local programs and professionals to prevent suicides and support families after a suicide occurs.

“Suicide prevention is a community issue,” Francone said. “We collaborate heavily with REPS (Reaching Everyone Preventing Suicide) to provide suicide-specific education and support in this area.”

When an unattended death occurs in Moffat County, a trained OHA Advocate responds to the scene along with law enforcement, the fire department and other first responders. It’s the Advocate’s job to support any family and friends who are on site while the coroner and other professionals do their jobs. Such deaths may be accidental, medical of unknown origin or self-inflicted.

“We try to make sure that survivors have support,” said Jamie Fraipont-Daszkiewicz, Advocates Programs and Grants Manager at OHA. “They need help through that initial timeframe as well as in the weeks and months to come.”

More broadly, OHA staff are trained to be on alert for suicidal thinking among all of their clients and in all of their interactions. “We deal with suicidal ideation on the daily,” Francone said. “Victimization is a big risk factor. So is substance use disorder, which is prevalent. Suicide prevention is a piece of everything we do every day.”

Getting Suicide Prevention Training

Because OHA understands that suicide prevention is a community issue and that open conversations about suicide risk and suicidal thoughts are critical, they support suicide prevention training for all.

OHA relies on evidence-based prevention methods such as ASIST, safeTALK and QPR. Their staff is available to train any community group or family in these communication and response techniques.

“We will offer training to one person or a roomful of people,” Francone said. We would like at least one person in every home to be trained in suicide awareness and prevention.”

Francone said that people tend to think that suicide prevention is someone else’s business. “It’s actually everyone’s business,” she said. “And we want to equip you to help. Everyone should feel comfortable having the tools and the knowledge of what to do next.”

To learn more about Open Heart Advocates or to schedule a free suicide-prevention training session for you, your family or a group, call 970-824-9709 or visit openheartadvocates.org.

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

Suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility. You can save a life by learning and remembering QPR:

Question: If you think someone might be considering suicide, ask them: Are you thinking about wanting to kill yourself? Be kind but direct.

Persuade: Persuade the person to let you help them right now. Say: Will you let me help you get help? or Will you go with me to get help? If persuasion doesn’t work, call a crisis hotline or 911.

Refer: Refer the person to an appropriate resource. If possible, stay with the person and help them call Colorado Crisis Services at 1-844-493-8255 or text TALK to 38255. In an emergency, call 911. The next best option is to assist them in making arrangements for help and then get them to promise to follow through on the plan.