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MORE THAN A NUMBER: What families should do in the first 48 hours after a tragedy

Grand Rapids Victim Services Coordinator said families should focus on their mental health after a tragedy.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — As 13 ON YOUR SIDE continues to tell the stories of victims of tragic crime, we are also trying to find ways to help families deal with the aftermath.

When tragedy strikes, you lose a loved one instantly, it can feel like you’re forced to face a million things you never planned for.

“It just feels like the world is, you know, kind of crumbling. Nobody prepares for a loss like this”, said Grand Rapids Victim Services Coordinator Clorrisa Novak.

In 13 ON YOUR SIDE’S  mission to help families of tragedies, we asked what we could do to better help those families.

Denise Yon, the mother of Willow Yon, who was tragically killed in a wrong-way crash, told 13 ON YOUR SIDE the most important time after a tragedy strikes is right after it happens.

“First 48 hours, you can't feel anything, and you still have to make decisions,” said Yon.

So what do you do if you experience an unexpected tragic death?

Novak said the first thing to do is to make it through the first day.

“Some of the biggest things that I'll tell family is, you know, for the most part, the biggest thing in the 24 hours is they just need to survive the night, find some support, figure out kind of what they need,” said Novak.

She said support can be in the form of working with advocates at her office who will provide resources for financial and grief support.

“They will come with information on things like grief for financial assistance. They'll bring checklists of information that funeral homes may want to know about, you know, name, what services they would like, things like that,” said Novak.

They’ll also help you think about documents you may need for funeral arrangements or investigations if it’s a crime.

In case of a crime, she said you don’t need to worry about reaching out to officials. They will reach out to you about what information they need.

“Our side will contact them when we need something or when there's updates or things. I think the biggest thing is kind of taking care of their family,” said Novak.

She added that part of taking care of your family is creating boundaries when it comes to people contacting you about the death and even designating a contact person.

“If you want to talk to someone, you can talk to this person, or having a family rep like that can be helpful because it's on top of, you know, potential criminal justice involvement, the advocacy, the figuring out arrangements and everything, having a ton of people reach out can be super overwhelming,” said Novak.

Novak said if you don't live in Grand Rapids, there are similar offices like hers at the local, county and state level.

She also said that when tragedy happens and you are not ready to talk to victims’ advocates, these services don't go away. You can reach out when you are ready to get help after you lose a loved one.

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