SUICIDE INTERVENTION TRAINING IN PEER SUPPORT COMMUNITIES: TWO DECADES OF SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY CAPACITY BUILDING.

In this presentation I will reflect on my lived experience as a peer helper with suicide intervention training taken in 1992 from the Canadian Mental Health Association. The training was given because of membership in A Post Psychiatric Leisure Experience, a drop in club for consumer survivors. I continued my peer support work in the peer support community as a board member in Psychiatric Survivor of Ottawa. Most of my friends in these two decades were other peers. I often had to pull out my suicide intervention tools for most of my friends who all at some point had lost hope. By developing a dialogue, contracting with these friends for no immediate harm, exploring hope and solutions and always then referring to professionals has been largely successful in tens of cases of intervention. Early on two members of my loosely knit community did commit suicide. Recently a professional social worker reached out for help and then committed suicide. These are the losses. With that goes the tens of persons I have helped get beyond suicidal thinking. Early on in in recovery from serious issues with fitting into society and making a network of supporters I developed an extensive network with others who had been or were in the care of the psychiatric system. Often these relationships were started at drop-ins and in programs for peers. I am now highly aware of just what to say and how to react when someone mentions suicidal thoughts. I have moved on into the regular working world as a professional in government research work. I have completed a variety of educations including some graduate school training I use at work. My lived experience and recovery inspires many. I also have for a decade volunteered outside of the peer support community with law enforcement and support victims of crime and tragic circumstances where I was able to take refresher training in the more modern ASIST intervention model. Through membership in a community that is significantly more suicidal than the rest of society I have developed skills at intervening and supporting healthy life and self-determination as best I can as a volunteer. I also will explain how I collaborate with paid peer support staff as we move into the recovery model of community mental health. I will present anonymized case examples from my community.