Ottawa moves towards becoming 'suicide safer' city

Posted Feb 16, 2012 By Jennifer McIntosh

---

EMC community - Parents with children in crisis will now have a road map to help them navigate the city's mental health services thanks to a Suicide Safer Ottawa summit held at Ben Franklin Place in Nepean on Feb. 8.

The summit brought together people from more than 40 service organizations to talk about supports that are already in place and what can be done to prevent future youth suicide.

The talk, which took place on Bell Let's Talk Day, which raised money for mental health issues, also resulted in a tool kit called Know What To Do, which provided tips and resources for parents whose children are in crisis.

Dr. Ian Manion, the executive director of the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health at CHEO, said prolonged negative moods and changes of behaviour are warning signs.

Myron Khatheer, a 21-year-old who started work with the Youth Services Bureau (YSB) after running away from home, said his work has helped him to see the signs.

"Suicide awareness is a huge issue," he said. "It happens a lot and there are always signals to spot."

Khatheer was part of a youth panel that talked to the crowd about letting young people drive the response system and tell service providers what they would like to see as youth mental health resources.

Khatheer said his pride in working with others at the YSB helped him to overcome some of his own issues.

"They gave me so many skills, things I didn't even know I was capable of," he said. They let me be myself in a supportive environment."

Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley said the community support received since his son Jamie took his own life has helped his family members to get out of bed each morning.

Hubley said finding help for Jamie - who suffered from depression - was a big thing for the family.

"Now we have committed to the cause so that his life wouldn't have ended in vain," Hubley said, adding that he wants to prevent another family from the pain of losing a child to suicide.

Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod and Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi came together to organize the summit.

Naqvi said he would like to see Ottawa build on the system that already exists, with support from the province.

"This issue isn't going away," he said. "We need to move on it."




blog comments powered by Disqus