In this engaging webinar, the Pathways Vermont Training Institute will provide a 1.5 hour overview of their Conversations About Suicide training. This training takes a relationship-first approach to supporting people who are considering suicide. Facilitated and developed by people with their own experiences surrounding suicide, this training addresses:
The power of compassion and connection
The importance of autonomy, choice, and the dignity of risk
Suicide as a language of pain
A harm reduction approach to supporting people who are considering suicide. This overview will summarize the full day training, offering a refreshing approach to supporting those who are thinking about suicide in a way that prioritizes connection.
This webinar is free and presented by Pathways Vermont, the Vermont Suicide Prevention Symposium, and the Vermont Collaborative for Practice Improvement & Innovation.
About the Presenters
J Helms (they/them) is an educator, advocate, writer, psychiatric survivor, and a person with lived experience of considering suicide. J works as Director of Training & Advocacy at Pathways Vermont, an agency committed to offering innovative mental health alternatives in Vermont. J previously worked as a service coordinator in Pathways' Housing First program and as a peer support advocate at a designated community mental health agency, supporting folks with experiences related to anxiety, sadness, extreme states, self-harm, suicide, and trauma. J is a certified Intentional Peer Support trainer, Alternatives to Suicide group facilitator, and Hearing Voices group facilitator. J develops and facilitates trainings and workshops on various topics including Pathways Vermont's Relationship-First Practice, Housing First, Intentional Peer Support, Harm Reduction, Person-Centered Service Planning & Provision, Conversations About Suicide, and Mad Movement Histories.
Amey Dettmer (she/her) is a Training Specialist at Pathways Vermont. With over a decade’s experience as a peer supporter and peer educator, she is nationally known in the peer support movement. She is distinguished as an Alternatives to Suicide Group Facilitator, an Advanced Level Facilitator, a Statewide Intentional Peer Support Trainer, and a Youth and Young Adult Peer Support Trainer. Amey currently serves as chair of the Vermont Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) Council and is a Board Member of Disability Rights Vermont. Amey is passionate about centering autonomy, choice and connection for all people, as well as engaging in social change efforts that involve the re-imagining of systems and communities to better support and include those of us who may experience mental health difficulties.