AUGUSTA — The Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Services (MBVS) has announced the creation of the Maine Safer Homes Taskforce (MSHT). The task force’s main mission will be to promote firearm and medication safety in homes in an effort to prevent suicide in Maine. Nationally recognized as Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month, the task force will use September to begin the distribution of its educational materials.

A few of the most important objectives the task force has taken on include:

• Promoting temporary off-site firearm and medication storage options with family members or friends.

• Developing veteran family and community safety plans.

• Work with firearms retailers, firing ranges, firearms and hunter safety instructors to create suicide awareness programs.

As part of their Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month outreach efforts, the task force, in coordination with the VA Maine Healthcare System, will send thousands of gun locks to community partners for distribution.

For more information and a copy of an MSHT brochure, visit: https://www.maine.gov/veterans/highlights/suicide-prevention-and-awareness.html, call the Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Services at 207-430-6035 or visit www.maine.gov/veterans.

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