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For the most part, coroner’s offices are responsible for investigating the circumstances of a death and performing autopsies. The Franklin County Coroner’s Office takes that work a step further.
In 2021, Dallas Allen became the first ever Suicide Investigations and Postvention specialist in a medical examiner’s office. In his position at the Franklin County Coroner’s Office, he analyzes suicide data, interviews family members and friends of those who’ve died by suicide and provides grief support.
All of these steps, Allen said, are important to identifying strategies to prevent suicide deaths across the state.
“We see a lot of things that continue to come up, a lot of issues that a lot of different at-risk populations and communities face across the board. So what can we do to limit those risk factors, in hopes that someone who has lived similar circumstances is able to build resilience. Or we have ways to better connect individuals to services in hopes to prevent that death,” Allen said.
Although Allen was the first, he’s no longer alone. Stark County in northeast Ohio added a similar investigator to its team in November.
He joined the Ohio Newsroom to talk about how his work could aid suicide prevention across the state.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
On investigating suicide deaths
“My perspective on the investigation is extremely unique. So while I do go to the scene and I do investigate it forensically, I'm also looking into kind of social factors that could have led someone to the unfortunate passing by suicide. … What things have they been through that would have led them down this path? That information is what I'm going to be collecting through interviewing with family, friends or anyone who's kind of been impacted by that suicide fatality. This information is then going to help us determine what we could do as a community. What can we change around and possibly prevent a similar situation from happening again?”
“The idea of this kind of retrospective view is not a new one, but the idea of having an investigator that is specializing in that is extremely unique. … I was the first to hold this title back in 2021, but I am no longer the [only]. We've actually worked with a lot of different communities and are trying to build this across not only the state of Ohio, but also nationally and even beyond. So actually recently Stark County, which is around Canton, Ohio, just hired someone with the same title. So we're moving in the right direction.”
On broadening understanding
“Mental illness and suicide is a very complex issue. And so making sure that we can get as much information as possible so that we have a better understanding of something that, most of the time, is really difficult to understand. We can actually interview people who have been impacted by this and know those incidents the best and actually utilize that information to change the way our services are approached … and make sure people who are struggling are connected, feel supported and they can live a long, successful life.”
“Me, myself, I am a suicide loss survivor. My kind of whole life path has shifted to not only preventing these deaths, but making sure that people who are now experiencing grief that I have experienced understand that they're not alone and that there is some hope that they can continue, you know, to live a successful life despite the difficult path that they've now been exposed to in the loss of their loved one.”
On analyzing trends
“Although we're just reviewing cases that are in Franklin County, we know that there's other reviews being had all over the state of Ohio, as well as in different states across the nation. And so they're collecting similar information.”
“So I've always had the goal since I started of looking at regional reviews so that we can actually look at what are the recommendations being collected from a regional approach so that we can actually see those issues and who they're impacting. Then utilize these recommendations to prevent those deaths and on a bigger scale.”
