Putnam County officials announced on Tuesday that the county has launched a LOSS team — Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors — and received a two‑year pilot grant to support the program. Paul Tang, director of mental health, and co‑leads Marla Baylor and Megan Castellano described the team’s goals, early deployments and plans for fatality reviews.

The program is intended to provide timely outreach and practical support to people who experience the loss of a loved one to suicide and to help first responders and families access resources. “The goal of the team is to be able to provide timely and empathetic support to folks who have experienced a loss to suicide,” Paul Tang said. Officials said faster outreach can shorten the time people take to seek help: national figures cited in the presentation showed the elapsed time to seek care after a loss fell from an average of 3.4 years to roughly 47 days when postvention teams intervene.

The LOSS team pairs county staff with peers who have lived experience of suicide loss. Marla Baylor identified the team’s work with coroners and first responders; the team provides “trunk kits” with comfort items, information folders and resources that responders can leave with families. Baylor said the county has already carried out five activations this year, including in‑person responses, and that families and first responders have expressed appreciation for the support.

Funding for the pilot totals $12,480 across a two‑year cycle; staff described the grant as limited but noted it allowed purchase of training, outreach materials and the trunk kits. “Three of the responses that we've had so far this year have involved children, young children,” Baylor said; the team said those engagements underscored the value of rapid outreach.

Officials also said the county will begin suicide‑overdose fatality reviews in October. The process will select one suicide and one overdose case for in‑depth review, including next‑of‑kin interviews, with the goal of identifying system gaps and prevention opportunities. “Our goal is to find system gaps, system improvements that we can make, something that maybe could have saved a life,” said Molly (facilitator), who described plans to maintain the humanity of reviewed individuals and to avoid blame.

The legislature did not take formal votes related to LOSS team operations during the briefing. Tang and the task‑force co‑chairs said the team will recruit trained volunteers and continue coordinating with coroners, first responders, Guardian Revival and other community providers. Officials encouraged anyone with lived experience who wishes to volunteer to sign up on the county’s suicide‑prevention website.