Training Overview
Talking about mental health and suicide can be an uncomfortable and uncertain topic that brings up different feelings, beliefs, and attitudes. This session empowers individuals to begin conversations and change perceptions toward hope, resilience, and a more supportive narrative around mental health.
Throughout the session, participants will engage in dialog about being intentional in the words we are using. Certain ways of talking about mental health and suicide can alienate members of any community, sensationalize the issue, contribute to a decrease in help-seeking behavior, or even present suicide as a glamorous, preferred way of dealing with problems.
Having healthy conversations about mental health and suicide avoids harmful messages that might increase suicide risk in individuals or undermine suicide prevention goals. By doing this safely, it reduces stigma, mitigates risks, promotes help-seeking, and respects all individuals.
Objectives
- Promote language that respects the dignity of individuals and emphasizes compassion, including using terms that reduce stigma and foster open, supportive conversations about mental health and suicide prevention.
- Recognize the signs for people at risk and how to respond when you identify someone who is in distress or suicidal.
- Empower individuals to begin conversations and change perceptions toward hope, resilience, and a more supportive narrative around mental health.
About the Presenter
Deborah Cavitt, MS, CFPS, is the Manager of Education and Advocacy in MACMH’s Youth and Family team. Her passion is to educate, coach, and empower youth and families to give them hope, knowledge, and resources to promote resilience, recovery, and mental wellness.
As a parent with lived experience navigating the systems of mental health care for her children, Deb understands the importance of family peer support during tough times. At MACMH, she has trained many parents and caregivers to be Certified Family Peer Specialists to support families of children with diagnosed mental health disorders. Before coming to MACMH, Deb was a classroom teacher for twenty years and a prevention specialist for a substance abuse agency. Her bachelor’s degree is in education and psychology and my master’s degree is in human service with specializations in mental health and substance abuse counseling. At MACMH Deb presents to educators, mental health professionals, community groups, and parents on Early Warning Signs of Children’s Mental Health Disorders, Suicide Prevention, Youth Mental Health First Aid, Bullying Prevention and many other topics related to child and adolescent mental health. Through federal, state and local grants she helps bring model programming to schools including Sources of Strength and Teen Mental Health First Aid to high school students.