From Wednesday, May 11 to Friday, May 13, 2022, the WRSPC team attended the “Together for Life” National Conference on Suicide Prevention in Montréal, Quebec. The conference was jointly organized by the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention (CASP), the Centre for Research and Intervention on Suicide, Ethical Issues and End-of-Life Practices (CRISE) at UQAM, and the Association québécoise de prevention du suicide (AQPS). The conference brought close to 500 clinicians, researchers, project managers, and other mental health stakeholders together.
WRSPC was fortunate to be able to highlight some of the work taking place in our community during two presentation sessions. On the first day of the conference, WRSPC’s Executive Director Elisa Brewer-Singh, shared some insights and learnings from our experience in Waterloo Region during the Roots of Hope pilot. The Roots of Hope project launched in our community in 2019, where we joined alongside 7 other national launch sites. While the Covid-19 pandemic certainly impacted some of the planned implementation activities, there were also great opportunities for innovation, and valuable insights were gained.
Our Independent Researcher, Amanda Demmer, also had the opportunity to share some of WRSPC’s learnings around community-based research methodologies in suicide prevention research.
In addition to presenting at the conference, the WRSPC team was able to make important connections with other researchers, community organizations, and clinicians working in suicide prevention. These connections allow us to learn from other experts, mobilize resources efficiently, and ensure that best practices in suicide prevention are incorporated into WRSPC’s programming. It was incredible and inspiring to see a diverse community of individuals and organizations come together for the work of suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention.
For more background on the conference, you can read the press release here.
