Support Caregivers: Help Prevent Suicide
While friends and families of individuals who experience suicide-related thoughts or behaviours (FF-STB) play a crucial role in support networks, healing, and crisis intervention, they are often not highly effective in these roles because of stigma and limited skills to understand and manage what their loved one is experiencing. As caregivers, FF-STB frequently experience a decrease in their own mental health. There is an immense lack of resources for FF-STB to learn how to support others’ and their own mental health needs alongside a dearth of resources for individuals at risk of suicide, with waitlists being up to 1 year. Thus, other support strategies are essential and building capacity within communities to effectively support their loved ones is a critical suicide prevention imperative.
To address this gap, the Arthur Sommer Rotenberg Suicide & Depression Studies Program at St. Michael's Hospital conducted a national needs assessment to understand the specific challenges and barriers FF-STB experience while supporting their loved ones. Those crucial findings were used to create the novel Family/Friends of Individuals at Risk of Suicide Training (FIRST) Program, and ensure the content met the needs of FF-STB.
The FIRST Program is designed to be a 6-week small group training program for FF-STB that aims to cover many important topics, not limited to:
-Education on suicide
-Communication strategies
-Navigating the healthcare system
-Crisis de-escalation
-How to take care of yourself as a caregiver
We are requesting donations to contribute towards our pilot study to run FIRST in communities across the GTA and Canada. Your donation will help make this important program a reality across the nation!
