MILAM COUNTY, Texas (KRHD) — A new team at Central Counties Services is helping those who have lost someone to suicide in Milam County and four surrounding counties. The Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors, or LOSS Team, aims to provide crucial support during the most difficult times.
15 ABC spoke with a survivor about the impact this program can have on families and communities dealing with loss.
Watch the full story here:
"Just because their pain stopped, it doesn't stop though — it transfers to family members, loved ones," said Jonathan Wilhite, a first episode psychosis therapist at Central Counties Services.
Wilhite is a therapist at Central Counties Services, but before he began serving in that role, he served our country in the United States Army.
"My original unit I deployed within the United States Army, we lost more to suicide than we did deployed to Iraq during the surge. So yeah, suicide has been a big part of life for me," Wilhite said.
Wilhite is not alone in his experience. Among the five counties that Central Counties Services helps — those being Milam, Bell, Coryell, Hamilton, and Lampasas — there have been 21 suicides reported since March and 104 confirmed in 2024. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for ages 14 to 24 — numbers that put the area in the upper 10% of suicides throughout Texas.
"That's why we really, really are working hard to make LOSS a program that's gonna work for our area," said Randy Dixon, LOSS coordinator for Central County Services Mental Health Authority.
The LOSS Team is designed to help those coping with the loss of someone to suicide.
"There is a proven fact that if a person can get help within a couple of weeks to a month after a suicide has occurred, it's gonna lessen the grief period by at least 50%," Dixon said.
The help they provide includes a care package of support resources and conversation.
15 ABC asked Wilhite how the program might have helped him if it had been available during his time of need.
"For me personally, it would have helped me. I would have had someone to turn to for coping and just help me talk through it," Wilhite said.
"I think it's good that we have these LOSS Teams out so that we can start to deal with these things and not just push it to the back of our mind and wait till it festers up, and then it's a bigger problem than what it could be," he continued.
Wilhite now volunteers with the LOSS Team as well, using his experience to help others.
"It is important to me because I've lost so many people that I was attached to when I was in the service, and my hope is to provide some kind of relief to someone because they need it," Wilhite said.
Wilhite and Dixon tell 15 ABC that they need volunteers in the community as they serve a crucial role for the LOSS Team.
More information on becoming a volunteer can be found in the flier below.
There is a training for LOSS volunteers on November 1, 2025, at the Central Counties Services training facility, located at 2420 S 37th St in Temple, Texas, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
To sign up for that, applications can be found through the Central Counties Services website by clicking here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
