Weekly News Roundup June 10 – 16, 2023

Subscribe to receive the weekly news roundup straight to your inbox!

Featured:
Support your friends this Buddy Up Month – ABP Daily
June 13, 2023
Buddy Up Champion organization Alberta Beef Producers is encouraging people to participate in Buddy Up Month, happening throughout June. “Clay is the agriculture persona for Buddy Up, a men’s suicide prevention communication campaign. Led by the Centre for Suicide Prevention, this campaign provides an opportunity to learn about men’s suicide, including risk factors (and protective factors), warning signs, and prevention.”

Suicides and Homicides Among Young Americans Jumped During the Pandemic – TIME
June 15, 2023
**Method warning** A new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the suicide rate for young adults (early 20s) in the US was the highest it had been in over 50 years. Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, a psychiatrist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, says, “There is a misperception that if you talk to young people about depression, they’ll get depressed. A don’t-ask, don’t-tell policy for depression is not effective. The earlier we can identify the ones who need help, the better chance we’ll have at saving lives.”

Suicide prevention: Coroner says family, friends should be involved in mental health care – Global News
June 14, 2023
Quebec coroner Julie-Kim Godin released a report on suicide in the province last week which included recommendations for the Health Department. One of Godin’s recommendations is that the department do a better job of involving friends and family in the treatment of people with mental health issues and addictions. “Even when loved ones are benevolent and clearly express their desire to help, they are not necessarily given the opportunity to be heard or to accompanying the user,” she wrote in the report. “As a result, they feel powerless and uninvolved, even excluded from treatment and the recovery process.”
Related – Coroner wraps up public inquiry with 63 recommendations to prevent suicides in Quebec – CBC

Preserving culture combats suicide risk among Indigenous youth – Turtle Island News
June 14, 2023
Alberta Health Services (AHS) is highlighting National Indigenous History Month. At a recent event, AHS shared about the Honouring Life, a life promotion program for Indigenous communities. Nathaniel Chalifoux talked about the important role that culture plays in life promotion, “Cultural connection and expression creates a sense of pride and increases feelings of security, belonging, and hope for the future, as strong cultural connections create a personal resource of benefit to young people throughout their lives and in times of crisis.”

Tłı̨chǫ community members in N.W.T. gather for youth suicide prevention course – CBC
June 13, 2023
20 members from Tłı̨chǫ communities in the NWT will be taking a youth suicide prevention training course. “Within the last year alone, we’ve experienced high rates of suicide in our communities and so members are asking for supports and resources,” said Stephanie Rabesca, one of the organizers with Tłı̨chǫ Healing Path, which is hosting the event. Leslie Kucey, who will be facilitating the course, says,  “Communities and families have always been taught ‘don’t talk, don’t trust, don’t feel.’ The program [that] kind of mitigates that is being able to create that safe space so people can talk, so people can start trusting each other”

Survivors promise it gets better as research shows surge in suicide deaths for young girls – CBC
June 11, 2023
A new study has found increasing suicide rates for young girls and women in Canada, along with a very slow decline of male suicides. Lead author Dr. Rachel Mitchell said, “It’s highly atypical for females to die by suicide more than males in any age group… It really is our collective responsibility to understand these trends so that we can develop suicide prevention strategies that will address this vulnerable population. Crisis Centre BC volunteer Hattie Zhang, 21, who has struggled with her mental health, says, “Depression … messes up your perception of what the future is going to be like, what you’re like. Don’t let it trick you into thinking that this is it, that there’s no help available, that you don’t have a reason to go on.” Amira Sidhu, 18, says, “I know it feels super hard and difficult right now, but there’s so many moments of joy that you’ll never get to experience if you give up now.”