Author: Start1

The London Free Press, December 4, 2012, Ian Gillespie.

This is a new initiative for the city of London and Middlesex county,” Cowie says. “Until this year, there have not been any qualified safeTALK trainers in London.”

The council offers about 15 of these public seminars between now and June 2013, including presentations on Jan. 10, 18. 26 and Feb. 1. (Cost is $35 a person, although subsidies are available.)

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London Community News, July 31, 2013, Sean Meyer.

Lynda Cowie is a project co-ordinator with London-Middlesex Suicide Prevention Council, an organization that has existed since around 1990. Lynda played a key role in the council’s launch of its new website last May, which is dedicated to educating the public about suicide.

First and foremost, Lynda said, the goal of the new website was to offer support to those in crisis or individuals who are trying to support a friend or family member who is in need of their own assistance.

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London Community News, September 5, 2013, Sean Meyer. Lifting the Silence, opening the discussion around suicide

London has seen an average of 34 suicide deaths the last 10-plus years — ranging from 26 to 47 deaths per year — and yet the subject remains a whispered conversation, if it is discussed at all.

The London-Middlesex Suicide Prevention Council is trying to change that by bringing greater awareness to a situation that sees almost one million people per year die from suicide, amounting to one death every 40 seconds.

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The London Free Press, September 9, 2013, Ian Gillespie

Very few people are prepared to talk about (suicide), because as it stands now, there are always going to be people who condemn when someone talks about experiencing mental illness,” he says. “But by talking about it, people can start to understand it.”

His words echo the message of the Lifting the Silence Memorial Walk slated for Tuesday evening in Victoria Park: The theme of that event is Stigma: A major barrier to suicide prevention.

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Metro News. September 12, 2013, Scott Taylor.

It’s one of the last frontiers — the stigma many feel uncomfortable discussing and one that too often ends tragically.

To contradict a once-popular song, suicide isn’t painless. Not by a long shot.

Yet one of the easiest and most effective ways to save someone is talking to them, to ask them questions and really listen to them.

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