With Mental Health Week upon us, the Canadian Medical Health Association (CMHA) highlights the importance of being able to express and understand even our most uncomfortable emotions on a regular basis. Saying that “heavy feelings lighten when you put them into words.” For some, putting their emotions into words is a whole other challenge. But not one that has to be faced alone.
SafeTALK stands for Suicide Alertness For Everyone, a training program designed to help participants engage and identify people with thoughts of suicide, making additional resources available to them for further support.
Using their TALK method consisting of the steps Tell, Ask, Listen, and Keep Safe, workshop trainer Kyle Rolph explains how each of the four steps plays a different role in the process of addressing those at risk of suicide.
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CMHA/SafeTALK Information Sheet
TELL
“If you’re having thoughts of suicide, you should tell somebody about them. But, most people can’t or won’t do that, so they will tell you in ways that is not so conspicuous. Like ‘I’m a burden. Or if I wasn’t here, nobody would care.’… They’re maybe not coming right out and telling you but you’re noticing these signs,” says Rolph.
ASK
“A lot of it’s in the way that you ask somebody. So asking them in a way that invites them to respond positively if they are actually thinking about suicide gives them the permission to answer honestly about it.”
LISTEN
”We’re not talking about listening that you learn in a psychology degree, it’s just listening to what’s going on in their life.“
KEEP SAFE
“Let them know that what they’ve told you is important,” explains Rolph, “It continues the process in further finding somebody that can better engage, keep them safe, and get them the help needed.”
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The three-to-four hour course features both presentations as well as interactive elements and is open for participants ages 15 and older. The program will continue again at the beginning of June, if the provincial lockdown is lifted.
Rolph says that ”the more eyes and ears we have in the community that are willing to ask if someone is having thoughts of suicide, the more people at risk we’re going to discover before it leads to them acting on those thoughts.”
If you’re having suicidal thoughts or worried about a friend or loved one, contact Canada Suicide Prevention Service at 1-833-456-4566 for support or text 45645 between 4pm – Midnight ET.
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