LivingWorks is proud to be a sponsor of the inaugural International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) Pan-American Conference – which takes place in Minneapolis this week from Nov. 19-22.
Kicking off the conference, LivingWorks’ Faith and Chaplaincy Director, Glen Bloomstrom, will be facilitating a pre-conference LivingWorks safeTALK workshop for attendees on the morning of the 19th.
“LivingWorks safeTALK is beautiful because you practice what you learn immediately. I love the way it is set up with safety and challenge,” says Bloomstrom.
Bloomstrom says the sharing of ideas and best practices in the suicide prevention and intervention community is something that always recharges his batteries. Conference attendees can stop by the LivingWorks booth throughout the duration of the week to learn more about our gold-standard suicide prevention and intervention training programs for everyone.
“What I enjoy the most is hearing people’s stories – how they got into suicide prevention or intervention. I love hearing stories because it’s about passion and mission,” says Bloomstrom. “They are excited to tell stories of why they believe this is important, and listening to those stories helps you to have an even greater commitment to suicide prevention.”
Closing out the conference, LivingWorks’ Dr. Pete Gutierrez, alongside Dr. Morton Silverman will be presenting on What is known about suicide prevention gatekeeper training and directions for future research, on Friday, the 22nd. The presentation is based on a recent journal article co-authored by Gutierrez, Silverman and Dr. Sarah Spafford, who is unable to attend the conference but contributed to the presentation.
Dr. Silverman was contracted to complete an independent comprehensive review of studies, research and evaluations that were published from 2010 onwards on LivingWorks programs.
“He did a very thorough search of the literature and identified all of the published studies he could find,” says Gutierrez. “This presentation we are doing draws on the report, but the focus is on ‘what’s the state of community helper training’ and our recommendations of where this area of suicidology needs to be moving.”
The term ‘community helper’ refers to individuals who play a vital role in suicide prevention within their communities – with ‘community helper training’ being programs that are designed to instill learners with the skills to make their communities safer from suicide.
“We need research on individuals who have learned the skills, how they use them and what impact they have on individuals who are experiencing thoughts of suicide,” says Gutierrez.
Both Bloomstrom and Gutierrez are excited for the inaugural conference because of the opportunity it provides to reconnect with old friends, discuss suicide prevention and intervention best practices and have open dialogue with researchers and academics from across the globe.
“It is unique here in the Midwest that we have people coming from other countries. I have a friend who is a longtime LivingWorks ASIST Trainer and he’s coming all the way from Singapore,” says Bloomstrom.
“The intent is to provide a forum for researchers to share ideas and learn from one another. I am really excited to see who all shows up, and I am aware of really exciting work that is being done in other countries and I’m hoping some of those researchers will be able to attend,” says Gutierrez.
To learn more about the inaugural IASP Pan-American Conference, click here.
To discover suicide prevention training opportunities to help keep your community safer from suicide, click here.
