Education, awareness, advocacy against social stigma, and positive affirmations. That is the focus of the Tisdale Suicide Awareness Committee’s yellow carnation campaign for World Mental Health Day on October 10.
“We provide local businesses with yellow carnations that include a positive affirmation to randomly share with their customers throughout the day,” explained committee chair and Tisdale Primary Health Care team member Heather Turcotte. “Our goal is to create and foster feelings of goodness and encourage conversations about mental health.”
Positive affirmations attached to yellow carnations sit in buckets in Tisdale area businesses for random distribution throughout World Mental Health Day October 10.
The committee formed in 2012 in response to an increase in suicides in the area. Since then, they have increased community capacity to help those struggling with suicidal ideation through presentations on the burden of suicide and common attitudes about suicide; offering the SafeTalk course to help identify those experiencing suicidal thoughts and connect them to the appropriate resources; and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training for those more likely to intervene. In 2014, an identified need led to the creation of a support group for family and friends affected by suicide.
Pauline Favreau stands in a sea of yellow carnations, affixing messages to buckets full of carnations that are delivered to local businesses by the Tisdale Suicide Awareness Committee.
Dave Favreau helps Andrea Staples cut yellow ribbons used to attach messages to each of the carnations being distributed through the yellow carnation campaign.