Weekly News Roundup Mar. 2-8, 2024

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United Way, CPS and City collaborate to coordinate community supports. – City of Calgary
March 7, 2024
As part of the implementation of recommendations made in a 2020 report by PolicyWise for Children & Families and Centre for Suicide Prevention, Transforming Calgary’s Crisis Response System: Final Report, the City of Calgary, United Way of Calgary and Area, and Calgary Police Service are bringing representatives from community agencies together to provide coordinated support services in a timely manner with Action Table Calgary.

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‘Let’s not have a need for that’: Sask. parents respond to new rapid access suicide counselling. – CTV News
March 6, 2024
Wanda and Chris Ball lost their son, Kye, 16, to suicide in March 2017. They say that they struggled to navigate the mental health system with Kye, and on one occasion, had to wait for nine hours in the ER when Kye presented for self-harm. In response to the Saskatchewan government’s announcement that postvention counselling would be offered to families bereaved by suicide, Wanda and Chris say that these are not the supports they were advocating for. They believe it’s more important to address issues with the mental health system and long waits between ER visits and counselling sessions for people struggling with suicidality. Wanda says, “We need to bridge that gap because people are falling through the cracks and we’re losing lives… This counseling program for families after the fact, I mean its great but let’s not have a need for that. Let’s do something before it escalates to this and that need doesn’t need to be there. We can fix this.”

Alberta increases funding for youth suicide prevention program – City News
March 4, 2024
The Government of Alberta has announced that an additional $1 million will go towards youth suicide prevention in the province as part of the youth suicide prevention grant program. The government’s total investment in the program is $4 million. Approximately 927 youth have been directly supported by the program. The grant is part of Building strength, inspiring hope: a provincial action plan for youth suicide prevention.
Related: Providing hope for struggling youth – Government of Alberta

Why Suicide Is All Too Common Among Autistic Adults – Psychology Today
March 3, 2024
Some studies have found that people with autism have higher rates of suicide than those in the neurotypical population. The author of this article, Jessica Penot, an autistic person, discusses some of the factors contributing to this increased suicide risk and offers solutions for addressing these factors. Penot says, “We need to create workplaces with fewer social demands that allow autistic adults to have flex time and quiet spaces. Allow autistic people to work and live in their own ways even if it is weird or different.”