Tag: resilience

Leadership is tested during times of crisis, controversy and social unrest. The best leaders rise to the occasion and can create opportunities for meaningful and lasting change. In the world of suicide prevention, voices of activists are challenging established ways of doing things, and in many ways the field is at a crossroads. Many are finding themselves re-examining the questions and methods of our research, the protocols of some of our “treatments” and crisis services, and the systemic racism and other social determinants of suicide that have not received enough attention.

In this interview, I have the honor of interviewing Dr. Jonathan Singer, the current President of the American Association of Suicidology, who has weathered many transitions and challenges during his leadership tenure with grace and significant impact. He shares his story of how he became the leader he is today and invites others to find their voices to change the field to be more inclusive and effective.

About Dr. Jonathan Singer
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Jonathan B. Singer, Ph.D., LCSW is Associate Professor of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago. He is a two-time winner of the National Association of Social Workers Media Award in 2012 and 2016. He was a 2014 Visiting Scholar at Fordham University, the 2017 Lucille N. Austin Scholar at Columbia University, and the 2018 Distinguished Lecturer at Weber State University. He is the President of the American Association of Suicidology and coauthor of the 2015 Routledge text, Suicide in Schools: A Practitioner’s Guide to Multi-level Prevention, Assessment, Intervention, and Postvention.

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Dr. Singer is a well-regarded international speaker who has given hundreds of continuing education workshops, keynote addresses, and presentations on youth suicide, ethics, technology, adolescent development and attachment-based family therapy in the USA, Latin America, and Europe. He is the author of over 65 publications and his research has been featured in national and international media outlets like NPR, BBC, Fox, Time Magazine, and The Guardian. He is an NASW Expert, Healio Psychiatry Peer Perspective Board member, and on several national youth advisory boards including Sandy Hook Promise and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. A pioneer in the integration of technology and social work, Dr. Singer is a founding member of the online suicide prevention social media community #SPSM; the Treasurer for the international human services Information Technology association (http://husita.org/); and co-lead for the Social Work Grand Challenge initiative “Harness Technology for Social Good.”

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Dr. Singer is the founder and host of the award-winning Social Work Podcast (www.socialworkpodcast.com), the first podcast by and for social workers. The Social Work Podcast has over 38,000 followers on social media, listeners in 208 countries and territories, and a million podcast episode downloads per year. He lives in Evanston, IL with his wife and three children and can be found on Twitter as @socworkpodcast and Facebook at facebook.com/swpodcast. for mpre information go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/68

“Storytelling is the water of human communication…”

(Bayer & Hettinger, 2019, p. 4)

“Neither revolution nor reformation can ultimately change a society, rather you must tell a more powerful tale, one so persuasive that it sweeps away the old myths and becomes the preferred story…”

~Ivan Illich

Our individual narratives are “building blocks” for our collectively shared representations of the past and our projections for the future. When our stories collide and reconcile with one another on an interpersonal level, they start to illuminate the nuances of underlying themes and concerns, especially among marginalized groups like those impacted by mental health conditions, suicide loss and suicidal intensity.

“Even though storytelling is a traditional means of delivering knowledge, wisdom and culture, it has a central role in social movements because it constructs agency, shapes identity and motivates action.” (p. 2, Prasetyo, 2017).

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Community activism is built on a cycle of trust, undergirded by stories. Synergy is achieved by weaving together purpose-driven and authentic voices that together represent a community as a whole. When the collection of stories is shared publicly, the advocates have an easier time enrolling others into the movement. When people listen to stories, communities are formed and pull together. Shared experiences become a profound source of validation and consolidation of learning. We are co-constructed by relationships in the community and the stories that arise as a result.

It is no wonder, then, that a number of collective storytelling initiatives about suicide prevention and mental health promotion have emerged, including “This is My Brave.” In this interview I interview Jennifer Marshall, founder of this nonprofit storytelling organization.

About Jennifer Marshall
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Jennifer Marshall is the co-Founder/Executive Director of This Is My Brave, Inc., the nonprofit platform for individuals to share their story of overcoming mental illness through creative expression. This Is My Brave held its first show in 2014. Since then, the organization has produced 70 shows across the US featuring over 825 individuals who’ve shared their stories on stage in front of a live audience. Jennifer gave a TEDx talk in October of 2016 entitled “Mental Illness: Being Brave Saves Lives.” In June of 2018 Jennifer was awarded the prestigious Clifford W. Beers Award by Mental Health America. In December 2018 Jennifer was named Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine

Very often in the world of suicide prevention we fall — as Frank Campbell says — into the “canyon of why.” Why did they take their life? Why didn’t they tell someone? Why, why, why. We often over look that question “how”. On this podcast a panel of our nation’s leaders on reducing access to lethal means tell us why the “means matter” in suicide prevention. They share innovative and effective collaborative strategies that help non-clinical people negotiate how to keep their homes safer from the tragedy of suicide. These strategies are based in a public-health approach and evolving partnerships with firearm owners, retailers and advocates. At the core of their success is a process of building bridges through mutual respect and shared values.

About the Presenters
Catherine Barber, MPA
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Catherine Barber is a senior researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health’s Injury Research Center where she led the effort to design and test the pilot for what is now the CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System. She is the founding director of Means Matter, a project to disseminate research and interventions on reducing a suicidal person’s access to highly lethal suicide methods. Recent work focuses on collaborating with gun owner groups on suicide prevention projects. In this area, she wrote a suicide prevention module used by over 1,000 firearm instructors nationwide, was one of the founders of the first Gun Shop Project, co-authored the original CALM-Online training, and co-PI’d a large clinical trial of lethal means counseling in the emergency department. She is the recipient of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Allies in Action Lifetime Achievement Award.

Elaine Frank, MHS
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Elaine Frank is an Injury Prevention and Public Health professional who has focused her work for the past ten years at the intersection of Firearm Safety and Suicide Prevention. She is the co-developer of CALM – Counseling on Access to Lethal Means – and the Co-chair of the NH Firearm Safety Coalition that created the Gun Shop Project and other efforts to engage the firearm community in preventing suicide. Ms. Frank earned a Master of Health Sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health where she learned how and why to collaborate in order to address complex issues.

Shelby Kuhn, MSW, LCSW, SAC
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Shelby Kuhn, MSW, LCSW, SAC, is a senior project associate with the Zero Suicide Institute, focusing on the implementation of suicide-specific care in health and behavioral health settings. In this role, she delivers training and consultation to improve care and outcomes for individuals at risk for suicide and extends Zero Suicide practice across diverse settings.

Kuhn holds a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She completed a postgraduate fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center, a department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, receiving specialized training in clinical practice with children and families. She has more than 10 years’ experience in direct clinical practice and program management working with high-risk behavioral health populations

The workplace is arguably the most cross-cutting system in suicide prevention. Just about everyone who dies by suicide or attempts suicide was working, was recently working, or has a close friend or family member who is working. Thus, just like we promote CPR training at our job sites to save lives, we should also consider on-going, skill developing suicide prevention training programs. In this presentation I interview Gabriela Malafaia, a leader in People’s Management in the oil and gas industry. We discuss the many reasons why workplace suicide prevention training is the right thing to do and list several best practices to leverage a tiered approach. Sharing a number of case studies, we conclude that successful training initiatives not only improve the confidence and competence of a workforce dedicated to making suicide prevention a health and safety priority, impactful training actually helps drive a caring culture.

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About Gabriela Malafaia
Gabriela Malafaia is a psychologist who has been working in the oil and gas industry for the past 9 years. Her main field of activity is workers health, especially focused in mental health in the workplace. She has a postgraduate degree in an expert in Workers’ Health (UFF, Brazil) and she is a mental health advocate with great expertise in employee assistance programs, workplace training, organizational psychology, mental health promotion and suicide prevention, intervention and postvention activities. For more information on this episode go to sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/65

Suicide Prevention from a Social Justice Perspective
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A new social movement is emerging, and it’s gaining momentum: it’s time we position suicide prevention as a social justice issue. If we only view suicide through the mental health lens, we will be very limited in our ability to create systematic change. When we look at suicide prevention through this lens, the change agents are the mental health service providers, who work with individuals – at least those who make it into their services; one-on-one, one at a time.

In order to take a more “upstream” approach to this, we need to think more broadly and conceptualize suicide prevention as a public health issue. When we view suicide through this lens, we can plainly see that many systems are involved in creating change – schools, workplaces, healthcare systems, justice, faith communities and more. Everyone can play a role in suicide prevention. But, I would argue, even this perspective falls short. Because if you haven’t been touched by suicide directly, you are usually unaware of its widespread and devastating impact and therefore, less inclined to allocate your energy toward targeting this particular health issue over others.

When we take a human rights perspective we consider new aspects of psycho-social injustice we need to fight against? For one, we have a grave imbalance in the way we treat mental health conditions and the way we treat other physical disorders. Because of this imbalance, people with mental health conditions often have a terrible time accessing adequate care. There are too few mental health treatment options and most of them are too costly for the average person. As my colleague Dr. Doug Johnson once said to me, “We have a psycho-social injustice problem. We have Americanized mental illness – by looking for quick fixes and ignoring the emotional impact of marginalization.”

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In this episode, Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren and I talk about a human rights approach to mental health promotion. She shares her insights from the bench of the Mental Health Court she oversees. Come take a listen to her story of her journey as she worked to develop a dignified, trauma-informed and humanistic approach for people who have been criminalized due to their serious mental health condition.

About Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren
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Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren was elected Broward County Court Judge in 1997. Judge Lerner-Wren pioneered the first problem solving Mental Health Court in the United States, dedicated to the decriminalization and treatment of persons arrested with mental illness and co-occurring disorders. The Court is a national and international model. Judge Lerner-Wren speaks nationally and internationally and is an adjunct Professor for Nova Southeastern University, College of Psychology and Neuroscience. Judge Lerner-Wren is also an author, A Court of Refuge: Stories from the Bench of America’s First Mental Health Court. For more information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/64

There are many stories we tell that hold men back from living their best lives. Here are a few that create barriers for men to reach out when they are distressed (Solomon):

“No sissy stuff” — in other words, if it is what women do, then it’s not for “real men.”

“Be a big wheel” — you are what you do for a living; achievement and your paycheck define your worth.

“Sturdy oak” — you are the one people lean on for help; you don’t lean on others.

“Give ‘em hell” — when all else fails, come out swinging; better to intimidate than to look weak.

In this episode, I speak with the internationally acclaimed “fact checking” journalist Josh Levs who has been busting myths about fatherhood for years. We examine the faulty scripts, how they contribute to the suffering of families, and we challenge listeners to adopt a new mindset on developing an “All In Life.”

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About Josh Levs
Josh Levs is a dad to three children.

He is also a truth seeker, an entrepreneur, a business consultant, and a former CNN and NPR journalist. He won six Peabody Awards and the designation of “Journalist of the Year” from the Atlanta Press Club.

He’s best known for his unstoppable advocacy and activism for gender equality. His book “All In: How Our Work-First Culture Fails Dads, Families, and Businesses—And How We Can Fix It Together” won the Nautilus Gold award, and the United Nations named him a Global Champion of Gender Equality.

He took legal action against Time Warner (CNN’s parent company) for fair parental leave after his daughter was born prematurely. Subsequently, Time Warner stepped up, radically changed its policy and blazed a path for other companies large and small to do the same. for more information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/62

Ambiguity is tolerated by some better than others. Small experiences of uncertainty can be exhilarating and bring us the joy of surprise. Large and prolonged periods of uncertainty can cause debilitating anxiety, leaving people paralyzed. In this interview, Hugh Ingalls and I discuss nine tactics people can use when living in uncertainty to help stay present and reduce anxiety:

Draw a circle. Draw a second circle inside the first circle. Write down the things you can control in the inner circle and things you can’t control in the outer circle. Keep your focus on what you can control.

Ask yourself an empowering question (e.g., “How can I do this right?”) and let the brain do its job.

Put yourself in the mindset of contribution (rather than competition).

Name it and tame it. Recognize the areas of stress, acknowledge them and thank them for what they are teaching you.

Break free from the negative voices in your head by choosing to direct your attention by anchor in your body (e.g., notice the energy in your hand).

Smile, improve your posture, and — if you can — dance! Raise your hands quickly above your head to shoot your anxiety out the top. These things are incompatible with anxiety.

Imagine yourself “flipping the switch” to let go of the outcome and embrace the challenge of uncertainty.

Put a rubber band around your wrist, when you go into anxious thoughts, snap the rubber band and come back to the present.

Focus your mind on life design.

About Hugh Ingalls
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Hugh S. Ingalls is a high-energy connector of people and ideas. Co-founder and co-owner, with his brother Ned, of the film & video production company Ingalls Pictures in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which has developed a series of films on mental health. Serves part-time as the Business Development Manager of Pressure Free Living, a comprehensive performance coaching program that reduces stress, anger, and anxiety both live and online. Currently he is also a public servant with the City of Grand Rapids, MI as Chair of the Mayor’s Next Gen Advisory Board and co-host of the podcast, Living at 100! For more information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/61

About Dr. Nathaan Demers
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Nathaan is passionate about people. This passion has led him to an enriching career as a clinical psychologist, filled with a number of twists and turns working across a variety of settings. Nathaan is an active traveler and athlete – these aspects of his life have inspired him to think beyond the traditional confines of mental health care. He strives to find innovative ways to expand the reach of mental health services to improve the lives of others. While Nathaan is fascinated by all areas of psychology, his passion lies within the positive psychology movement working specifically in preventative behavioral health. You can tell he has grit because he’s always ready for an adventure. It might be starting a spur of the moment soccer game in the office, striking up a meaningful conversation with a stranger in the elevator, or leading a backpacking trip; regardless, there’s rarely an adventure he turns down. Nathaan is continually inspired by his wife, son, family and friends. For more information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/60