Survivor Day (photo courtesy of Suicide Prevention Resource Centre)

By Liam Verster

Suicide Prevention and Counselling

Survivor Day event offers support and connection to survivors of suicide

Nov 22, 2019 | 5:00 AM

The Suicide Prevention Resource Centre (SPRC) is holding an event on the weekend, for survivors of suicide.

Survivor is the term given to someone who lost someone close to suicide. Survivors often end up suffering through grief and mourning from their loss, and the SPRC is holding the Survivor Day event to help them through their mourning, and connect with others going though similar struggles.

At the event, a documentary entitled Pathways to Healing: Hope after Suicide Loss will be aired, which tells a story of a young man who took his own life, and the impact it had on his family and friends. Program Coordinator with SPRC, Faris Atkinson, says the film looks at how people grieve and how they all mourn in different ways.

“We express those feelings of grief very differently. And so they’re going to show that, and how they interact with that. And how it goes from confusion to denial, there’s isolation, there’s finding support. It goes through a whole myriad, a progression, of what they went through. And when we hear these kinds of stories, it really helps us in our own journey.”

After the video, the SPRC will provide lunch, then hold a sharing circle. They will discuss the film, how it resonated with people, and perhaps share their experiences and how they dealt with their grief. Atkinson says the opportunity to engage with each other and be a part of each other’s journeys can create powerful bonds that lead to friendships and long term supports.

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“Sometimes it’s the first opportunity for people who have suffered a suicide loss to actually connect with a community of Survivors, that’s what we call ourselves. Even though our experiences are different, they all have similarities, so we don’t really have to explain everything. We get it. That’s part of human nature, we seek out people that we have common experiences with, to connect to, and that’s what we’re offering here.”

The event is designed to offer people support, a connection, and a safe place to talk about the loved one they lost. Atkinson says openly talking about grief is often very difficult and makes others uncomfortable, and this event provides a space where people can share and feel safe. She also encourages participants to bring a photograph of the person they lost, in order to celebrate their life, and rememberer the important roles they played, instead of just their last moments on earth.

The Survivor Day event began as an initiative in the United States that coincides with the holiday season, as suicide and depression tends to rise during that time of year. Grande Prairie was one of the first communities outside of the United States to adopt this program, and the Suicide Prevention Resource Centre has been running these events since the mid-2000s.

Atkinson doesn’t have the statistics on how many people in Grande Prairie take their life, but does know the ratio province-wide is six times higher for men than women, and in Grande Prairie the ratio of men who commit suicide is 10 times higher than that of women.

Atkinson says anyone in need of help can call Health Link at 811, who will connect people with the proper services. In Grande Prairie, there’s the Integrated Crisis Assessment Team, who will help connect people with supports and services. 911 can also be called in extreme situations, and a team which includes a police officer and a psychiatric nurse, will respond. More details on services available in Grande Prairie are available on the Suicide Prevention Resource Centre’s website.

The Survivor Day event begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, November 23, on the second floor of Nordic Court, located at 10014 99 Street.