Awareness Event at Riverside Park (featuring music and speakers)

Free and Open to the Public

• SPEAKERS
• STORIES OF HOPE
• INFORMATIONAL WALK IN THE PARK
• MUSIC BY THREE LEGGED MARLEY

Speakers rain or shine. Music weather permitting.

The Opportunities and Challenges of Suicide Prevention
- Morton M. Silverman, M.D., is the Senior Science Advisor to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC). Dr. Silverman served as the first Chief of the Center for Prevention Research at the NIMH (1983-1985) and as the first Associate Administrator for Prevention at ADAMHA (1985-1987).

Dr. Silverman will review the most up-to-date epidemiological data regarding suicides and suicide attempts, as well as current thinking about risk factors, protective factors, and warning signs. He will present different models for understanding the suicidal process and demonstrate their applicability for developing and implementing suicide prevention programs, with an emphasis on public health approaches. He will present an overview of the state-of-the-art in evidence-based practices for preventing suicide, and suggest a roadmap for developing community-based suicide prevention programs.
Session objectives:

1. Become familiar with the challenges to mounting suicide prevention programs
2. Identify opportunities to implement community-based suicide prevention programs

QPR – Question, Persuade, Refer: Suicide Prevention Training
- Christine Hughs, LCSW
“A Gatekeeper is anyone in a position to recognize a crisis and warning signs that someone may be contemplating suicide. This could be you.” (QPR Institute, 1995) Like CPR, QPR provides the basic tools that may save the life of someone who is thinking about suicide. Everyone can learn the skills of Question-Persuade-Refer, the steps that encourage action and offer hope.
Session objectives:

1. Identify suicide myths and facts
2. Identify verbal, behavioral, and situational clues
3. Know the three steps of QPR

How Chronic Pain can Lead to Hopelessness
- Lisa Howell, Ph. D.
This talk will provide fundamental knowledge about chronic pain and it can generate and lead to hopelessness.
Session objectives:

1. Increase understanding of chronic pain symptoms
2. Ways to explore hopelessness with chronic pain patients
3. Ways to provide hope and increase resilience in chronic pain patients

Returning Combat Soldiers
- Norb Laufenberg MSSW, ACSW, LICSW, LCSW
This session will review a basic structure to address issues facing our combat veterans when they return home. By reviewing a veteran’s military experience, in basic training, and training for combat, we will identify a change in the individual’s identity. Once a soldier is in combat he/she does as they are taught to do, and told to do, without question, without emotion, and to the best of their ability. Military personnel are taught to be proud of their service, and their sacrifice for their country. When combat soldiers return home they assume it is all going to return to the way it was before going to war, however that is not likely to happen. For returning soldiers, this approach will encourage them to think about their new identity and two basic changes; one is their body chemistry has changed, and a second area of change we will call job confusion. During this session we will explore these adjustment issues to better understand what a soldier may go through when they return home from combat.

Facts & Fiction on Self-Injury
- Jennifer Muehlenkamp, Ph. D.
This session is an introduction to what is currently known about non-suicidal self-injury and its relationship to suicidal behavior in adolescents and young adults. The session will focus on reviewing common misconceptions about self-injury and discussing the truths. Cutting edge research pertaining to risk and protective factors for self-injury will be highlighted along with a discussion of why people engage in this behavior and what might be done to help stop it or prevent it. How to respond to someone who is engaging in self-injury, monitor for suicide risk, and intervene will also be mentioned. This session will be most appropriate for individuals who have little to beginning level knowledge of self-injury.
Session objectives:

1. Identify common myths of self-injury, correcting the myth with factual, empirically based knowledge
2. Describe risk and protective factors for self-injury as well as signs for suicide among self-injurers
3. Describe recommended interventions

Men & Suicide: How Avoiding Vulnerability Makes Us Vulnerable
- Ryan McKelly, Ph.D., LP, HSP
Someone recently stated, “We tell boys not to cry and then wonder why some men die by suicide.” While suicide is a complex issue for men, one key component is the way we socialize boys and men to avoid emotional vulnerability. The main focus of this presentation is to explore the paradox between strength and vulnerability, and learn ways to help men see the benefits of emotional connection with self and others.
Session objectives:

1. Describe the several cultural and developmental challenges men face in being more emotionally vulnerable with others.
2. Identify several potential interventions that can be used in their respective settings to help men learn the benefits of emotional vulnerability.

Youth Suicide Prevention: What Works and What Doesn’t Work
- Dr. Morton Silverman, M.D.
Dr. Silverman will lead a discussion on the epidemiology of youth suicide, with special reference to risk and protective factors in adolescents and young adults. He will review the risks and benefits of school-based programs and suicide prevention programs being implemented at colleges and universities. He will present approaches to evaluating the efficacy of prevention programs, with special emphasis on gatekeeper training programs.
Session objectives:

1. Understand the size and scope of the problem of youth suicide in the U.S.
2. Describe effective programs to address suicide risk in adolescents and young adults.

How Substance Use and Suicide get Inter-twined
- Ronda Lettner, RN, LMFT, CSAC
Suicide risk and substance use/dependence have a high rate of co-morbidity. This session will address the clinical picture of inter-relatedness with these disorders. We will look at neurological function as a contributing factor to the comorbidity. This discussion will then lead to describing steps to take toward treatment and reducing risk for relapse.
Session objectives:

1. Participants will identify the “chicken and egg” nature of substance use and suicidal risk
2. Participants will describe the brain dysfunction contributing to substance use/suicidal risk.
3. Participants will identify resources and behavioral steps to take toward treatment and reduction of relapse risk.

Bullying and Suicide: Real or Media Hype?
- Jeff Reiland, MS, CPT-S, CSAC
The last decade has witnessed a surge in media stories about bullying and suicide with children and teenagers. Is this real or is this media hype? This presentation will explore what is known about the research related to bullying and suicide, identify recognizable risk factors for suicide with vulnerable populations of children and teens and explore solutions for reducing these risk factors.
Session objectives:

1. Review the current literature related to bullying and suicide. What is known and not known.
2. Identify the recognizable risk factors for suicide with vulnerable populations of children and teens.
3. Explore the solutions that can be developed for reducing these risk factors.

After a Suicide, Honoring Loss and Healing Together
- Sally Spenser Thomas, Psy. D.
In the aftermath of suicide, individuals, families and communities can often feel completely isolated and overwhelmed. This presentation offers examples of support services and rituals to help those bereaved. Presenter Sally Spencer-Thomas brings lessons learned from surviving her brother’s suicide, from her experiences supporting recently bereaved families, and from her role as the Survivor Division Chair of the American Association of Suicidology.
Session objectives:

1. Identify the unique challenges facing people bereaved by suicide
2. Learn about support services and resources for survivors of suicide loss

Impact of Suicide on Family Members: A Panel Discussion
- Panelists: Laura Lee Stigen and her sister Hannah Stigen, Deb Mahr and her son, Sam Mahr. Facilitator: Christine Hughes
Panelists describe either first-hand or from a family member’s perspective what it’s like for a college age person struggling with mental health issues or suicidal tendencies.

Historical Trauma and Suicide
- Elizabeth Digby-Britten, ME PD
This session will introduce the different types of historical trauma and how it can lead to many forms of escapism and ultimately suicide. We will talk about how this impacts Native Americans but it can also be seen in other diverse groups as well. We will go over some basic steps on how to acknowledge historical trauma and thoughts on how we can move forward together.

Treating Suicide: The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicide (CAMS)
- Jennifer Muehlenkamp, Ph. D.
Many professionals know how to assess for suicide, but may lack knowledge on how to treat a person who is acutely suicidal. The CAMS therapy is used world wide and utilizes a flexible, collaborative approach that can be applied regardless of one's therapeutic style. Drawing upon recommended standards of care for suicidal persons and the use of a systematic, regular assessment tool, CAMS invites the patient to join the therapist in examining the factors contributing to the suicidal state in a proactive and empowering fashion. The result is often a significant reduction in suicidality in a short-term therapy model that also leaves a patient with strong coping/life skills at the end of therapy. This session will provide an introduction to CAMS, an empirically supported therapeutic approach developed by a leading suicide expert, Dr. David Jobes. Research detailing the effectiveness of the CAMS therapy with suicidal patients will also be briefly reviewed. This session is ideal for professionals who regularly intervene with or directly treat suicidal persons.
Session objectives:

1. Identify the core assumptions/philosophy underlying CAMS
2. Understand the basic therapeutic approach of CAMS to treating suicide
3. Describe the effectiveness of CAMS for treating suicidal persons

Up on the High Wire: Mental Resiliency and Suicide Prevention
- Sally Spencer-Thomas, Psy.D., as a clinical psychologist, mental health advocate, faculty member and survivor of her brother’s suicide, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas sees the issues of suicide prevention from many perspectives.

Are we doing enough to invest in the mental health and “mental resiliency”? With increasing demands to do more with less and perform with polish, today’s workforce relies on human resource professionals to consider mental health concerns when designing a comprehensive wellness plan. This workshop looks at the issue of mental wellness and participants the tools to help themselves and others sustain a passion for living over the long haul. As a psychologist, mental health advocate, and survivors of her brother’s suicide, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas brings a unique perspective to the topic. From storytelling to discussing the effects of stress on the brain, Sally will help participants know how to stay mentally fit, avoid burnout and remain focused on wellness.
Session objectives:

1. Make a case for a comprehensive "upstream" mental health
2. Define mental resiliency
3. Articulate the four approaches to resiliency – be bold, belong, be well, and believe