T-L Photo/KAILEY CARPINO Wendy Ware, director of prevention and student support at the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center, discusses how adverse childhood experiences can increase an individual’s risk of suicide.

CADIZ — The Harrison County Wellness Coalition discussed bringing new suicide prevention resources to the area.

The meeting last week was organized by Wendy Ware, director of prevention and student support at the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center.

“One of the things that we do in Belmont County is a suicide review. We have a suicide review board, and so we meet usually at least twice a year – more if needed but about twice a year — where we review all of the suicides that occurred during that time period,” Ware said.

Ware said the board looks at the circumstances and information about people who committed suicide.

“We take a look at their history through Children Services being on the board and taking a look to see if they have any Children Services history. The sheriff’s department is there, and they’re able to report on any legal involvement, so we gather all of that information and use it to help guide what is needed in the county as far as prevention efforts,” she said.

Ware said the board has discovered a correlation between gambling debts and suicide.

“I think for about 50% of the deaths, the people that killed themselves had significant gambling debt,” she said.

She added that many of the people also had “major adverse childhood experiences,” or ACEs.

“There are traumas that kids might have in their lives that affect and change pretty much who they are as they’re developing. They grow up in families where there’s abuse, there’s neglect, there’s substance use, there’s, you know, domestic violence or separation, incarceration, trafficking, domestic violence. So you have those events in the household, and they are affecting the children, and they’re considered those adverse childhood experiences,” Ware noted.

She said the more ACEs someone has, the more at risk they are for substance abuse, mental health issues and suicide. She said that ACEs can also harm physical health as well.

“You’re talking about heart disease. You’re talking your cancers. You’re talking all of those things. There is such a huge relationship between those. So it’s almost like adverse childhood experiences are a public health issue,” she said.

Ware said the county needs to spend more time addressing ACEs and their effects. She said that ACEs happen everywhere, including in Harrison County.

She also said she has done research on how to address the issue, and one way to prevent ACEs from happening is to strengthen economic support for families.

“People and children who live in poverty are just at risk for a lot of things, but one is adverse childhood experiences,” she said.

Ware said officials need to make sure that families have the resources they need and make a living wage. Ware also said that making sure communities have access to safe, affordable child care is important.

“A lot of times it seems like there’s not enough child care, and so children are being cared for by maybe not the best people,” she said. “Another strategy would be to promote social norms that protect against violence and adversity. So for domestic violence, we should promote learning healthy relationships and then supporting people when they have domestic violence situations and having services and programs for them.”

Ware also said that trauma can be passed down from generation to generation, so preventing traumatic events from happening and providing resources for people who experience trauma is important for the future.

“If you have a family history of trauma, it genetically changes their children, and their children and their children. So grandma or grandpa might have had a major traumatic event, and the grandchild’s genetics are different because of that event,” she said.

Research indicates that while trauma cannot change DNA, it can impact other genetic factors, such as which genes are switched on or off.

Ware said in Belmont County, she and other health and wellness officials are working to form a committee that specifically focuses on addressing ACEs. She said she would like to form a similar committee in Harrison County.

Patty Allen, director of the Mental Health and Recovery Board, and Amy Hercules, consultant at the Village Network, both volunteered to join the committee during the wellness coalition meeting.

According to its Facebook page, the Harrison County Wellness Coalition is “a group of community members, treatment professionals, agency leaders and others who are committed to helping end the abuse of legal and illegal substances in Harrison County.”

The next meeting will take place at 1 p.m. April 9 at the Puskarich Public Library in Cadiz. People can also join the meeting virtually on Zoom. The coalition will post the ID needed to join the Zoom meeting on its Facebook page.

The Harrison County Wellness Coalition usually meets at 1 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every other month in the meeting room in the basement of the library.

For more information, visit the Harrison County Wellness Coalition Facebook page or contact Ware by emailing her at wendy.ware@ecoesc.org.