BTM213 – Denise Meine-Graham – Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors (LOSS) Teams
Behind The Mission
Show Summary
On today’s episode, we’re featuring a conversation with Denise Meine-Graham. Denise and her husband help communities develop Local Outreach to Suicide Survivor teams, or LOSS Teams, to provide support to others bereaved by suicide.
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About Today’s Guest
Denise Meine-Graham, a former corporate executive, turned her personal tragedy into a mission of hope after losing her son, Drey, to suicide in 2012. She founded LOSS Community Services in Columbus, Ohio, to provide support and healing to those bereaved by suicide. In 2022, she transitioned to the role of Director Emerita.
That same year, Denise and her husband, Robbie, established Postvention Consulting LLC to help communities develop LOSS Teams and postvention programs nationwide. They also work at the state level to build postvention infrastructures and networks. In 2023, Postvention Consulting took on the responsibility—originally led by Dr. Frank Campbell—of expanding the LOSS Team active postvention model. LOSSteam.com
With a strong business background, Denise has developed a structured approach to launching LOSS Teams, contributed to nationally recognized media guidelines on suicide reporting, testified before state legislators on postvention-related policies, and frequently speaks on suicide postvention and her journey as a loss survivor.
Denise has received multiple awards recognizing her achievements and collaborative leadership. She has extensive training in suicide prevention and has served as a QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) Instructor, CALM (Counseling on Access to Lethal Means) trainer, and “How to Share Your Story” trainer. She is a Certified Thanatologist, a Certified Psychological Autopsy Investigator, and holds a Death and Grief Studies certification from the Center for Loss and Life Transition.
Links Mentioned in this Episode
PsychArmor Resource of the Week
This week’s resource of the week is the PsychArmor course, Postvention: Healing After Suicide. Postvention is a term unfamiliar to many people, yet it is a critical component of suicide prevention. This course explains postvention, what it is and why it is important.
You can find the resource here:
https://learn.psycharmor.org/courses/postvention-healing-after-suicide
Episode Partner:
This week’s episode is brought to you by Humana, a leading health and well-being company that has joined forces with PsychArmor to develop campaigns and courses that support veterans and their families in achieving their best health. To learn more about how Humana honors and serves veterans visit healthequity.humana.com/veterans”
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Theme Music
Our theme music Don’t Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.
Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran, and clinical mental health counselor for service members, veterans, and their families. You can find more about the work that he is doing at www.veteranmentalhealth.com