Suicide counseling network will expand services to Poplar Bluff

Survivors of Loved Ones to Suicide Inc., a local not-for-profit counseling network, is expanding its support services to Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

It already has run monthly meetings for people who have lost someone to suicide in Cape Girardeau and East Prairie, Missouri. Those groups have been meeting monthly for five years and usually consist of five to 10 members.

The group obtained not-for-profit status in March and had its first fundraiser to help pay for the expansion in August.

"It dawned on me, 'Wow, we really need to get something together to help people; why don't I take it a step forward?'" SOLOS founder and CEO Jennifer Huffman said. "There's a great need for this, I thought."

According to the most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 40,000 people die by suicide in the United States each year. Missouri ranks 18th in suicides nationwide.

"We had 960 last year, and unfortunately [that number] is growing every year," Huffman said. "We've had four in our local area in the past three weeks. I know, because I've talked with their loved ones."

Huffman, a mother of six who works as a manager at the airport, said the work isn't something she does just to pass the time -- it serves a need she feels compelled to fill.

"I lost my mom to suicide 17 years ago," she said, adding the most beneficial thing she experienced during her healing was connecting with other people who could relate.

"I learned through personal experience, I felt very alone, and I didn't want anyone else to feel that way," she said. "I hear on a daily basis people saying, 'I wish I could talk to somebody, I wish I could discuss it with someone who understands.'"

On average, a suicide occurs every nine hours in Missouri, making it the 10th-leading cause of death in the state, Huffman said. She said the problem is especially pronounced in rural areas such as the Bootheel.

Although SOLOS runs similar support groups in Louisiana, Ohio and Kansas City, Missouri, there's a pressing need in rural Southeast Missouri.

"We have people who drive all the way to Cape from Perryville, Carbondale (Illinois), Poplar Bluff," she said, "places where there's not a lot of help nearby."

Although the board of directors and founder are in Cape Girardeau and Kansas City, the organization has cultivated a global online presence.

"We currently have 12,000 people connected to the Facebook page," Huffman said, explaining private and moderated online sessions have been a powerful tool for healing.

"We looked at it and thought, 'Can we do something privately?' so we started using closed Facebook groups and screening participants. We have to make sure that everyone has actually been through a suicide and not just some Facebook troll trying to sell perfume," she said. "We have 55 people worldwide, from Belgium to New Zealand to Australia, keeping an eye on those groups."

She said the success of the online groups inspired her to incorporate.

"Around the beginning of this year, we said, 'Wow, it's grown so fast that we probably need to do something, make it official,'" she said.

Huffman said she knows what it's like to lose a loved one to suicide, and this is a way to help others.

"Talking to other peers after a suicide loss is very healing; it actually shortens the healing process by years," she said. "I've seen it save lives."

Anyone who has experienced a similar loss is encouraged to get in touch with SOLOS through its Facebook page, and Huffman encouraged anyone in crisis to call the National Suicide Prevention hotline at (800) 273-8255.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627