By Erin Knutson

The Canadian Mental Health Association Kootenays Branch (CMHA Kootenays) is on board with its mission to save lives by creating awareness around suicide and taking measures to help educate the community on ways to prevent, identify, and guide individuals to get the help they need by offering Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) at their Cranbrook location.

The LivingWorks course, created by LivingWorks Education Inc., is one of the top prevention and intervention programs globally, according to CMHA Kootenays Director of Public Education and Crisis Services and ASIST Trainer Natalie Hake (pictured above).

Two million people worldwide have been certified to assist others through this course – a fourteen-hour standardized training workshop that ensures quality control over suicide first aid.

“It’s suicide first aid, and it’s about reducing things that contribute to suicide at that moment – it’s about staying safe right now,” she said.

There’s an immediacy to the methodology, which demonstrates how to pull someone out of the ‘river of suicide’ effectively or to get them to the edge of the river to a place of more safety while simultaneously creating a safety plan with that individual.

“It’s resiliency training to stop people in the river and to help them connect with their needs and to stay safe,” said Hake.

Hake and co-trainer Jamie Gibson (pictued right) are facilitating workshops on suicide prevention across East Kootenay.

Having hosted a second workshop in Cranbrook, Hake and Gibson are pleased with the turnout and participants’ enthusiasm.

With almost two million individuals reporting thoughts of suicide in Canada in 2021, (pandemic-related, climate change, global instability, the opioid crisis, inflation, lack of affordable housing, mental illness, addictions and inadequate support), all contribute to the reasons the need for life-assistant trainers is at a high.

“It’s about connecting with suicide when working with an individual (determining if they are suicidal and to what degree), understanding choices, and assisting life,” said Hake.

The course teaches Pathway for Assisting Life (Pal) – It starts with short-term safety first for the person in crisis. Then it supports a person’s reasons for living while finding a turning point and helping them confirm actions to connect with resources.

“It’s all about collaboration and respectfully working with that person. Our system thrives on respectful and caring caregivers,” said Hake.

Hake and Gibson affirm through their workshops that anyone can attend and that this course is for everyone, not just people working in the health sector.

“Trust your intuition – it can be powerful and sometimes terrifying to be in intervention,” said Hake.

By connecting and validating that person’s pain and suffering by listening and helping people connect to life, the course provides the tools for individuals to save lives.

“We bring people from a place of danger to one of greater safety,” says Gibson and Hake.

The people who attend the workshops represent one number.

The possibility of saving lives exponentially increases when participants return to the world, according to the LivingWorks pair of certified trainers.

“It’s also about decreasing stigma around the issue and creating a safer community,” said Gibson.

The two-day workshop helps people to connect in a safe space to learn how to have those discussions around suicide and to be able to identify lifesaving actions.

“It’s very effective. It’s about intense intervention; most attendees feel prepared to provide suicide first aid. I’m proud to deliver this workshop and to help more people in the community understand and prevent suicide,” said Hake.

Hake and Gibson have extensive training, certifications, and experience giving workshops and, over the past decade, have seen a rise in the request for suicide prevention programs within the community.

“When you save a life, it is a success – you have succeeded.”

For more information on available workshops in the East Kootenay, including SafeTALK and ASIST, please get in touch with Natalie Hake at [email protected]

Erin Knutson/e-KNOW photos

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