The Charlotte OpDD Community Action Team partnered with the Carolinas Alliance for Veteran Employment (CAVE).
Our Charlotte OpDD Community Action Team partnered with the Carolinas Alliance for Veteran Employment (CAVE) on a monthly breakfast for local human resources and talent acquisition folks employed across 20 companies hosted by Goodwill Industries. More than 40 individuals participated in a collaborative conversation about promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace for military and veteran families with a specific focus on supporting suicide loss survivors. Not only did the audience learn that there are 135 “suicide loss survivors” to every life lost to suicide, but participants learned that engaging in suicide postvention is suicide prevention. After introducing the OpDD study, participants engaged in a conversation about the goal of any conversation with a suicide loss survivor (Presence in the form of demonstrated curiosity, openness, acceptance, and lovingkindness). Not only did participants report gratitude for increased awareness of resources for suicide loss survivors and knowledge about how to refer to the OpDD study for loss survivors in Mecklenburg County, but they stated their confidence increased around starting conversations with anyone experiencing grief in the workplace through engagement in pair role-play.
– Nicole French, OpDD Community Lead