New Year, More Friends, Big Goals
Hello! We have some exciting news to share. During our January 14th board meeting we made the decision to make the move from 501(c)3 nonprofit to 501(c)4 NGO status. Two big benefits of this change are that fundraising can be streamlined to accommodate projects which may fall outside of funders’ more general goals and we gain the ability to lobby for policy change at the state and national level. These benefits will help comprehensive postvention to take its own position in the zeitgeist, rather than being viewed as an mere adjunct to prevention. While we move forward we’ll still send out a quarterly newsletter. Meantime, learn what’s new with longtime and new allies!
VICTORIOUS VOICES
This year, the West Slope Youth Voice interns are focusing on legislation and policy action focused on Mental Health and School Based Health Centers.
The I Matter program can connect youth with a therapist for up to 6 free virtual counseling sessions (some in-person appointments available, too) that are completely confidential.
Read West Slope Youth Voice 2022 legislative issues report HERE.
RAD RESEARCH
Shout out to Anna Mueller, who’s co-authored article offers a vision for building suicide prevention capacities in schools. Dr. Mueller is a longtime ally of postvention and prevention for adolescents in schools, and she listens directly to the students who are most affected.
POETIC POSTVENTION
Stay tuned for Caleb Ferganchick’s next update about 2023 Slamming Bricks. For years he has gathered survivorship data during the slam.
TEACHING TRANSITIONS
If you haven’t yet discovered Kimberlee Bow’s wonderful This is Life Yoga YouTube channel, it’s well worth a visit. She provides brief adaptive yoga sessions, many of which address grief and life transitions.
OUTSTANDING ORGANIZER
And here’s a good GO TEAM! to Chelsea Arata, APN, who is in the process of designing a data base for Western Slope pediatric psychiatric providers. The data base is intended to create a lane for providers to communicate with one another for the purpose of providing care for children.
PRESENTING PRACTICAL POSTVENTION
Graduates of Western Colorado’s LOSSteam training will remember our fab moderator. Read below about Tracy’s recent experience with presenting on comprehensive postvention at Project Heart’s winter leadership conference.
Training While Leaning into Empathy
by Tracy Oeser, MSPsy
Have you ever been asked to do something, and then formed a picture in your mind of how uneventful it would go, only to experience a completely different and amazing outcome? Recently I was invited to give a presentation about the intersectionality of suicide prevention, intervention and postvention to a group of mentors in northern California. Project Heart’s mission is to mentor those who struggle within the context of addiction, incarceration and other life struggles. Within both the men’s and women’s mentorship programs, they use their past and personal experiences to meet those struggling and then come alongside to empower for healing and change. For myself, I went for a job and gained a family.
Professionally, it is easy for me to get caught up in the parameters of the contract. In other words, to show up and just meet the requirements of the job. When we try to convey all the context related to suicide, we have a goal to teach concepts, preferred language and the latest research happening within the field. But, when I arrived to the venue and met the people I would be working with, something happened. Rather than approach these helpers with just information and data, I was spiritually and emotionally led to bring my story of lived experience and teach from that. From there, I brought them into the fold and took them along for the ride.
Storytelling is a powerful medium for communication. Studies have shown that when we can relate to people on a level of empathy, relationships can be built and connectiveness will happen. My story surrounding the loss of my daughter to suicide opened their eyes to complicated grief that they did not realize exists. As I shared how I had felt alone with the lack of support and unawareness of resources, the mood in the room began to shift. Rather than being just a presenter who had come to teach them statistics about suicide and methods to support others, I became another human who had gone through real life struggles and heartbreak.
From here, not only did they begin to see how my story resonated with others they mentored in the past, they also began resonating my story with their own. My humility allowed them to recognize personal hurts and traumas they had not dealt with in years. In other words, my story created a safe place for them and they began to share their stories with me as well.
By the time I moved into talking about upward prevention, they were re-energized to utilize their passions to support those not only thinking about suicide but those who have already experienced a suicide loss. We had all connected on such a powerful and meaningful level. They decided I was family. If you are a spiritual person, you will understand that God was moving in that room. If you support a different type of faith, you will understand that the collective power of people coming together for a common message is a powerful thing.
Certainly, I recognize that it is important to know your audience and there are times when I will just come into the room and tell how an average of 135 people are affected by one suicide loss. Or how talking about the decreased availability of housing or food scarcity within families can be causes for suicide just as much as under-utilized means reduction or unavailable mental health treatment can be.
But suicide prevention is not just collections of data that represent a tragedy. It is connecting with people on a human level while trying to end the stigma and pain happening to more people than it should. And I think sometimes we forget about that. Be human in your training, especially with the hard topics. Twenty-six people are now better equipped to go out into the world and share their light for healing. I am glad I was part of that transformation.
Tracy Oeser, MSPsy
CEO, Bereavement Coach and Trainer
Journey Thru Grief
CRUCIAL CONTEXTS
One year ago this month we heard from Lina Vanegas during the Colorado Suicide Prevention Commission’s quarterly meeting. She spoke about the urgent need for research and care for adopted children. It was difficult to hear that adoptees suffer a 5X higher suicide risk than the general population. We look forward to Lina’s future research and advocacy.
LAST RESPONDER LEADERS
Last, but definitely not least, we wish Victor Yahn the very best as he transitions from Mesa County Coroner to his next phase. It may seem strange to honor a coroner in a postvention space, but Victor is an example of someone who is superlative at his job. He worked with West Slope Youth Voice as they worked to create and pass Colorado’s postvention legislation (HB21-1119) and he consistently showed up to every meeting with state health officials and legislators to support the youth’s goals. Victor worked with a wide array of community members to create excellent annual reports, and he supported every postvention effort brought to his desk, and we appreciate his years of efforts.