In the wake of multiple recent tragedies, Antrim first responders and community members have united to support one another, and look for solutions. The town has witnessed deaths by suicide, an overdose, and a juvenile arrested in connection to a homicide in the past six weeks.
“The town is shaken,” said Nick Davis of At The Cross Church.
Davis noted that all the town’s recent tragedies have involved people under thirty. “Week after week, it’s pretty insane. There’s a lot of questions.”
He said the At The Cross Church congregation includes people affected directly by the recent tragedies, and three of the recent deaths in town were within two miles of their church. “It’s been a very trying time,” he said.
“In the last several months, it’s been pretty busy for Antrim fire, police and ambulance. We responded to some pretty severe incidents,” said Fire Chief Marshall Gale. “As first responders, this is kind of our job … and we deal with it, but it’s kind of unusual to have this many incidents at one time, especially all in one town.”
“We make a point to keep a pretty good eye on all the members. We watch out for each other,” Gale said. “If somebody seems to be having some difficulty with an incident, [we] try to reach out to him.”
He said a couple of the area departments have checked on the first responders of Antrim.
“We appreciate everybody’s concern and support in the community. We’re going to keep doing what we do. All the Antrim departments: fire, police, ambulance, highway – we have a great relationship where we support each other,” he said.
Gale and Police Chief Scott Lester said that members of their departments seem to be doing all right for now.
Gale said he plans to coordinate with the Granite State Critical Incident Stress Management Team to set up an informational meeting for fire, police, and ambulance first responders soon. He said the team helps first responders who have witnessed especially traumatic events in the line of duty.
“We used to think of PTSD as mainly with veterans that were in combat, but 30 percent of first responders now have some form of PTSD,” he said.
Gale said he’s participated in several debriefs facilitated by the Granite State CISM in the past. “The counselors do a great job,” he said. In the debriefs, he said everyone involved in an incident attends a roundtable discussion and “gets to talk about the incident and get it off their chest, so to speak.” He said the organization has a 24-hour number available, and a counselor will typically respond to a caller within half an hour.
“Small towns in New Hampshire … are not immune from what’s going on in the world, with the pressures on young people,” Selectman John Robinson said. “We all feel sorry for the families. Where and how [can we] prevent these things in the future?”
“Whenever there is a tragedy that has the potential to impact our schools we work in conjunction with our school counseling staff to determine the best course of action,” ConVal Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo-Saunders wrote, and that any response takes into account what’s developmentally appropriate for students as well as what the district is allowed to share with students, staff and the community. “On behalf of the entire staff, I want to thank the members of the community who have reached out to support our District. The outpouring of emails, phone calls, and personal visits has been a model of kindness and compassion for all of us.”
“We met with Grapevine and community leaders last week … and we wanted to throw our hat into the ring,” Davis said, “Whether part of a congregation or a local business … we want to be able to help those who have a need, however, it is.”
Among the existing and future resources for problems like bullying, mental health and drug abuse, Davis said that his church wants to “reach out and be a voice of hope.”
“We want to make sure there’s a spiritual voice for people searching for something, spiritually,” he said.
“If everything’s very random, it’s very easy for people to think that there’s no purpose when everything’s falling in on their personal life, their family life,” he said. “We think there’s a message of love and grace and forgiveness … there is hope in it, it doesn’t have to be the end. … We think these are huge messages to people, especially young people, who might not be thinking that.”
“It’s been a really challenging couple of months,” said Melissa Gallagher, director of the Grapevine Community and Family Resource Center. “It’s been a time of grief and coming together, and we want to play our part in helping people connect to one another, and staying attuned to what people need in terms of support and resources.”
She said that the Grapevine organization’s focus is “Prevention, prevention, prevention.”
“At the end of the day, this is about paying attention to mental health, paying attention to how young people and parents and families are connected to one another, and for people to know where to go for support.”
After the new year, Gallagher said that Grapevine plans to hold events about the NAMI Connect Suicide Prevention Program for adults and teens. For teens, students from another school district will be training Antrim students on how to help their peers. Gallagher said the adult training will be focused on creating a community network of support, and establishing “gatekeepers” who know what to look for, the right questions to ask, and how to connect people to resources. “And just being there for one another,” she said.
Grapevine and Avenue A Teen Center are sponsoring two teen gatherings on the subject “Supporting each other through tough stuff.” Gallagher described the conversations as “a way for young people to come together and talk about what they’re seeing and how they can support each other,” about topics like depression, anxiety, and loss. They will be facilitated by Glenn Stan, who is a Teen Center volunteer, retired school counselor, and NAMI Connect Trainer. A conversation for high school students is set for Friday, Nov. 15 at 4:30 p.m. and one for middle school students grades 6-8 is set for Monday, Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the Avenue A Teen Center.