The suicide prevention training session Sept. 12 at the Alano Club in Courtenay is sold out, but people are encouraged to nevertheless register to be placed on a waitlist for the next session.
The Canadian Mental Health Association Mid Island (CMHA MI) is hosting the training, in recognition of World Suicide Prevention Day on Sunday, Sept. 10.
Each year, over 500 British Columbians die by suicide. Although suicide is a leading cause of death for youth 15-24 years, the impact of suicide is actually greater among older people.
“Suicide prevention has always been a concern for us,” said Jason Harrison, CMHA MI executive Director. “We want people to know the facts and how they can help people at risk.
“Statistically, those most at risk of suicide are men in their 40s and 50s. Year after year, this age group experiences the highest number of suicides nationally (Statistics Canada, 2014) and while there are far more attempts made by females, males take their own lives four times more often. In fact, the latest statistics reveal that in Canada, 75 per cent of those who died by suicide were male.”
safeTALK Suicide Prevention Training — a three-and-a-half-hour workshop — helps participants, regardless of prior experience or training, gain knowledge about how to help a person who is having thoughts of suicide. In the safeTALK training participants will learn to: • Identify people who may have thoughts of suicide
• Ask them directly about the possibility of suicide, then • Connect them to life-saving community supports and resources.
The suicide prevention Community Gatekeeper Training Project is designed to make B.C. communities safer and save lives by providing participants with skills to help people who are at risk of suicide. Two levels of suicide prevention (Community Gatekeeper) training are available: safeTALK and ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training). The latter is a two-day intensive, interactive and practice-dominated course. FMI: mid-island.cmha.bc.ca/education
In 2015, the provincial government allocated $3 million to support the work of the Canadian Mental Health Association B.C. Division in preventing suicide. The goal was to train 20,000 people in suicide prevention through a program called the Community Gatekeeper Training Project.