Umatter -- Prevent Teen Suicide in New England

On August 18, 2020, the VT Suicide Prevention Center (VT-SPC), in collaboration with the Center for Health and Learning (CHL), presented the Vermont Suicide Prevention Symposium 2020: Bringing Resilience into Focus. The virtual Symposium was a huge success and attracted over 350 participants from healthcare, social services, mental health, community-based organizations, state agencies, policy makers and people with lived experience.

The goal of the Symposium was to empower and engage community-wide stakeholders in Zero Suicide strategies, evidence-based practices, and lessons learned in the field. By facilitating connections between misuse and suicide prevention stakeholders, it will become easier to advance effective prevention strategies. These connections can create new ways to form innovative collaborations and increase knowledge about risk and protective factors and recommend strategies for working with vulnerable populations. This is especially important in Vermont where suicide rates are higher than the national average.

The Symposium brought together national, regional, and local keynote and workshop presenters covering a wide range of topics including youth, older adults, LGBTQ+, lethal means, law enforcement, veterans, telehealth, peer support, social justice and racial equity. Each speaker shared powerful and compelling stories revolving around their own lived experiences with suicide and mental health and/or professional experience from the field.

Keynote and Workshops presentations at the symposium included:

• Widening the Lens: Social Justice and Racial Equity in Suicide Prevention
• Away from No way: Every Child Has a Story, Every Story Deserves Heroes
• Community Collaboration for Zero Suicide: The Lamoille County Experience
• Zero Suicide Pathway to Care - Addressing Challenges for Systems Engagement
• Integrating Suicide Focused Care in Primary and Specialty Care
• Reframing Resiliency: Doing More and Asking Less Of The LGBTQIA+ Community
• Telehealth & Suicide Prevention: Supporting Mental Health Clients Remotely
• Lethal Means Safety and Suicide Prevention: New Approaches for Firearm Safe Storage Counseling
• Care Transitions:  Best Practices, Innovation, and Community-based Connections
• Comprehensive Suicide Prevention in K-12 Schools
• Strategies for Engaging Students in Success and Building Resilience
• The Nature and Roles of Mental Health Peer Support
• A Veteran’s Perspective on Suicide Survival and Prevention
• Drowning while Flying High: When a Leader Struggles with Depression and Suicidal Thoughts

See more of what took place at the Symposium by visiting https://vermontsuicidepreventionsymposium.org/

CHL and the VT-SPC would like to thank our event sponsors, including:

The Vermont Deparment of Mental Health
C&S Grocers
Chroma Technology
The Mental Health Technology Transfer Center
UVM Medical Center
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont
OneCare
North Country Hospital
New England Publlc Health Training Center 
Northeast Telehealth Resource Center (NETRC)
Vermont Care Partners
Vermont Department of Health
Invest EAP
NAMI-VT
Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center

Links:

• Symposium home page

With all the uncertainty that COVID 19 is bringing to our lives and communities, CHL and the Vermont Suicide Prevention Center wants to remain a resource for young people with Umatter® Youth and Young Adults.  We can’t always guarantee safety with in person events, and so for the moment, we are adapting and sustaining our work in order to maintain contact with our youth participants even though they are out of the physical school environment. 

We are moving to the virtual-verse!

Since the Umatter YYA in-person culmination event scheduled for April 29 was cancelled, we are moving the event to a virtual format. Through a facilitated process, Umatter YYA participants will be able to share their stories, experiences with YYA, celebrate successes, and generally connect about what is happening in their worlds.

Because the YYA curriculum concepts are as important now as ever. 

CHL is also offering interested youth a wonderful creative opportunity by requesting input on a re-design of the UmatterUcanGetHelp.org website.  This award-winning website will be improved and informed by youth feedback about how it could be better and more useful to them and their peers.

Knowing how important it is to continue this work, CHL will continue to adapt our programming to meet the needs of the schools, adults and young people who we have the honor of working with. 

We expect there to be many more mental health challenges to address that have been brought on with the current COVID-19 crisis.  With your support, we can be there to help.