Grant to aid efforts in preventing suicides, overdoses

A Bartholomew County effort to dig deeper into the causes of suicides and drug overdoses is getting a boost from a $66.000 dollar grant.

According to Charlotte Barton Coombs, executive director of Family Service Inc., the community created the Suicide and Overdose Fatality Review team in 2021. The team which includes emergency responders, non-profit agencies and other organizations reviews fatalities to try to learn what steps could have been taken to avoid the outcome and points in the person’s timeline where intervention could have happened.

The team has been approved for the grant through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

The grant is initially approved for six months and then could be reauthorized for another two years.

Bartholomew County was one of only 12 communities in the state to receive such a grant.