- Middle-aged men are at higher risk of suicide than women
- An estimated 130 people die by suicide in the United States every day.
- Deaths by suicide have decreased during the coronavirus pandemic
Plain TWP. − Like memories, questions remain. Shannon Ortiz lost her husband to suicide in 2016, and her experience was made all the more tragic by the fact that she is Stark County’s leading suicide prevention expert.
But as a licensed clinical counselor and mother of two, she’s the only person in Stark County who specializes in trauma-focused support for survivors of suicide loss and other traumatic losses. He turned his pain into purpose in the form of “Light After Loss.”
On Sept. 10, Right After Loss held its grand opening at the Hope and Healing Center, located at 3751 NW Vershire Drive, formerly home to Vershire Swim Club and Merging Hearts.
“You can do all the right things. You can know everything and still wake up the survivors,” she said. “It’s a club that no one registers for, but in the end we’ll be joining.”
Ortiz said she started “Light After Loss” in 2019. “Throughout my journey, I hit rock bottom in a way and realized that this was more than just sadness.”
“When trauma and grief meet, things get complicated,” she says. “So I went from grief therapy to trauma therapy, and that’s probably what saved my life. That’s why we call it ‘postvention,’ and it covers all the things that happen after a suicide.” We support survivors of suicide loss.”
The center offers eight support groups, including one for women who have lost a child. We are also partnering with the Stark County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio Foundation for Suicide Prevention to train field team volunteers and provide aftercare support for new suicide deaths.
Right After Loss opened early in the pandemic, but the demand is there, Ortiz said.
“Other nonprofits are probably struggling, but not nonprofits that have had traumatic losses,” she said. “We were getting calls about losses due to COVID-19, people not being able to say goodbye to their loved ones. So 2019 was just about, ‘This is better than we expected. It’s going to be a big thing.’ It was a revelation.”
Ortiz is the former director of counseling services at the University of Mount Union, where he created a prevention program. Prior to that, he worked for Summit and Stark County Community Services (now ComQuest Services).
“I worked with Shannon many years ago when she was a new counselor,” said Michelle Heberling, ComQuest’s chief clinical officer. “Even back then, she had a passion for helping others and embraced the mission of a community action organization dedicated to serving the most vulnerable. “She was caring and passionate about our work. Her upbeat personality and positive approach to clients and support made her support of her colleagues memorable.”
Heberling said he admires Ortiz’s use of personal tragedy to serve the community.
“She was a huge presence in the community, bringing attention and energy to helping those who were suffering,” she said. “Her own life inspires her hope that a great life is possible even after her loss, and her bright smile still brings sunshine into her darkened life. ”
Ortiz said Mount Union is a perfect fit for his skills.
“They were looking for someone who could do college counseling as well as programming, and I was really good at that,” she said. “I just really fell into that niche and never in a million years did I think that my foot was on the other side and I was wearing a different shoe. That’s just me. “Suicide and mental illness don’t discriminate. You know a lot about a lot of things, but you either survive or you find yourself on the other side of the coin.” It is possible.”
Craig Ortiz was a talented golfer, but his dreams of becoming a professional were ended when his car was hit by a drunk driver. He lost his scholarship offer due to his absence at Jackson High School due to injury.
“He said he probably had his first depressive episode when he was 16,” Ortiz recalled. “Here he was, 16 years old, a man in the ’80s, and he just cried all the time and he couldn’t hold things together. He didn’t know what was wrong. It was.”
The two met in Portage Lakes in 2002. She was a graduate student working as a waitress, and he was a sales manager at a motorcycle dealership. They got married in 2008 and then had two daughters.
dance
“We did what we called ‘The Dance,'” Ortiz recalls. “He takes his medication, he goes to counseling, he stabilizes, he feels better, and then he says, ‘I don’t need to take any more medication.'” It just goes round and round. ”
Craig Ortiz’s condition worsened, he lost his job and his car was damaged. His risk of self-harm increased after his father, Gary, a gunsmith and concealed carry trainer, died in 2014. Gary would come to the house and remove his weapon if necessary.
On August 3, 2016, Craig Ortiz used a gun to take his own life.
“It’s been three days since the new school year started,” she said. “Mount Union was very accommodating and flexible, so I just did administrative work for that year. I took eight weeks off and came back after fall break. I was able to get things moving. I supervised other counselors and interns just for the sake of it. The great thing about Mount Union is that it’s a family. They really rally around their peers. During the 2017-2018 school year, I I quickly tried to get back to my world, and I asked them to hold their heads up together.
“I’m not going to say the second year is harder than the first. The first year is just numb and putting one foot in front of the other. We’re trying to get through Christmas. Let’s get through it. That’s what I’m doing.”
But the demands of work dealing with grief, trauma, and suicide and crisis became too much. Ortiz resigned in spring 2018.
“I realized that I was probably in the same dark place as Craig, because not only did I lose him, but now I also lost my job,” she said. “I felt like I was too hurt to help anyone. I let my clinical license lapse. Like the Titanic, we stood up in the water and waited for it to just crack and sink.” I felt like I was waiting. So it’s either: Save everyone else or save us. So I created this mantra: ‘Is this good for me? Is this good for me? Is it beneficial to my daughters? If not, let it go.”
Ortiz remarried Scott Hyba on September 14, 2019, but was diagnosed with breast cancer on December 14 of the same year. A tattoo on her arm reads “Survivor.”
“Scott helps me a lot with ‘Light after Loss.’ He’s a really good advocate for the survivors he supports because he lives it every day,” she said.
Ortiz said there are plans to add a coffee shop and banquet space.
“It was definitely more money and effort than we anticipated,” she said. “There was a moment where I thought, ‘Oh, we made a big mistake.’ But at the same time, the person who paid us to help us fix the basement was a suicide victim, so everything was in harmony. I feel like this place has become a place where pain has become a purpose.”
For more information, visit https://lightafterlossstark.org or call 330-846-3630.
Contact Charita at 330-580-8313 or [email protected]. on Twitter: @cgoshayREP
