By Penny Knapp
www.rememberingnicholas.ca
Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), is a 2-day workshop and is an asset to anyone that wants to feel ready, willing and able to help someone at risk of suiciding.
Its also is helpful if a person thinks another person is at risk, or sounds like they might need help.
It gives people the confidence to step up, step forward and say “it’s OK to need help” or “I want to help you, I don’t know how, so lets get you what you need”, “This sounds more than what we together can handle, so lets get someone who can help you” – this all means professionals or a doctor.
When human beings experience that pit in the stomach “fear” or the shame & stigma, we tend to back away or not want to get involved. To let fear win means, “the more we avoid it, the more we have it.”
So when my son Nicholas suicided May 2007, I had to know more about it.
And my journey has brought me to peer support and survivors of suicide loss support and creating resources.
I was someone shocked and disappointed with my lonely journey.
Then I realized I had to change that.
There was many more survivors of suicide loss.
I just had to reach out and find them.
I also took a certified suicide prevention intervention training course to be a trainer.
Here I am.
Many times I still run into those afraid to talk about the “S-word.”
Suicide is not a cowardly act. Its a person wanting to escape unbearable pain they no longer can sustain.
People need to know this.
When a person knows little or nothing about something, they can make uneducated statements.
They can also make wrong decisions.
I want to provide the ASIST training to all those who want to learn more about suicide prevention and intervention.
I want those who are willing to support survivors of suicide loss, those left behind, to have the tools they need to provide support.
We are a charity organization that survives on fundraising. We do not receive government funding. I had never been educated about suicide until my son Nicholas suicided and then I was choking on suicide.
I want to help others.
I want survivors of suicide loss to know they are not alone.
I want then to know it’s not personal.
It’s about those in pain.
It’s about helping them get help.
We have to know how to talk, how to ask the right questions, to know their needs and provide them with help.
No one is immune to suicide or the risk of suiciding.
Suicide knows no race, no gender, no status.
The workshop in Wallaceburg takes place on July 16 and 17.
Contact Penny Knapp at flying_birds1@hotmail.com or 519-854-0393.
Spots are filling up and the registration deadline is July 8.
