By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

On Sept. 8, the Centre de prévention de suicide de Haute-Yamaska–Brome-Missisquoi (CPSBMHY) is holding a festive picnic to get people talking about a less than festive topic: suicide.

The picnic will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Davignon Park in Cowansville, with a free lunch offered to the first 100 people, and a wide range of door prizes. There will be art therapy sessions, a temporary tattoo booth and yoga sessions to help people relax – as well as a tent with a support worker for anyone who needs to talk and get something off their chest.

CPSBMHY communication and philanthropic development officer Chantale Rivard said she hoped the event would help start difficult but important conversations. “We know it’s not an easy subject – we wanted to bring it to people in a fun and easy way.” She emphasized that the picnic was open to anyone in the area – not just Cowansville residents.

Rivard said the event was an opportunity to discover the services CPSBMHY offered. “We have phone support [for people in crisis], one-on-one meetings, support groups and clinical support groups for professionals [working with people at risk of suicide],” she explained. The centre also plans to run roving drop-in clinics around Brome-Missisquoi in the fall – “One day in Knowlton, one day in some other place … we’ll try to have a schedule to let people know that Mondays we’ll be in this town, Tuesdays we’ll be in that town, and so forth.”

Although the group programs are only offered in French at the moment, the centre has a bilingual support worker who is able to provide one-on-one service in English. The centre is expecting to have more bilingual staff in the fall, Rivard added. “It’s always a challenge to find bilingual people, but [our current bilingual support worker] knows the area and knows how to help.”

Every year, between 1,000 and 1,100 Quebecers die by suicide, and thousands more attempt to take their own lives.  “It’s getting easier, but it’s still a taboo subject; it’s not something people will talk freely about,” Rivard said. “We want to bring people’s attention to the fact that there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Vigil planned in Sherbrooke

JEVI, which provides suicide prevention services in and around Sherbrooke, will hold a march and vigil to remember people lost to suicide on the evening of Sept. 10, World Suicide Prevention Day. The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Pavilion Armand-Nadeau, and participants will march alongside Lac des Nations. “We’ll start the march, and then [at around the halfway point, near the Marché de la Gare] we’ll hold a workshop about myths and facts around suicide,’” said Chanel Clément, philanthropy co-ordinator at JEVI. Support workers will also be on site for anyone who needs to talk. “Speaking out about suicide is how we prevent it, and how we reduce distress,” she said.

Although statistics show that middle-aged men face a higher risk of dying by suicide than the rest of the general population, Clément said no one is immune. “You can’t imagine how common it is [to have suicidal thoughts]. We talk to young children, to people who seem to have comfortable lives…there are so many people in deep distress. But there are solutions.”

Clément said JEVI can provide short-term one-on-one counselling in English for people who are in distress, contemplating suicide or trying to cope with the loss of a loved one to suicide. The organization also runs support groups, although numbers aren’t always sufficient to put together a support group in English.

People in crisis who are in need of immediate assistance can call 1-866-APPELLE at any time to speak to a counsellor in French or English.