CRISIS INTERVENTION AND PUBLIC INFORMATION SOCIETY OF GREATER VICTORIA
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : a***n@n***2.ca
Mission Statement
NEED2 Suicide Prevention Education and Support is a volunteer driven organization supporting young people in the Greater Victoria area. Through school based prevention and awareness education, and on-line emotional and crisis support, NEED2 works to break the silence and challenge the stigma that exists around suicide and mental illness. NEED2 and the services it provides help to keep youth in our communities safe.
About This Cause
PROGRAM OVERVIEW Crisis Intervention and Public Information Society of Greater Victoria has been serving residents of the Greater Victoria region since May 1971. Doing business as, NEED Crisis and Information Line, NEED operated the local crisis line until 2010 when the Health Authority, it’s key funder, consolidated all crisis lines of Vancouver Island into one centre in Nanaimo. Since 1996, NEED also developed suicide prevention and community education services and more recently, a web based support service for youth. We are continuing to offer these services in the Victoria area, under our new doing business as name, NEED2 Suicide Prevention, Education, and Support. Currently our focus is on youth, and we plan to continue to develop our capacity to address suicide prevention and mental wellness across the lifespan. We are the only agency in the CRD that has a focus on suicide education and prevention. We know that there is much room for program development and we believe that there is a vital need for programs which will help provide a continuum of preventive and intervention services for youth and others in the CRD and help break the silence around suicide and depression in our community. Youthspace.ca (www.youthspace.ca) In 2008 we launched Youthspace.ca, a web based youth support service providing a unique web based, syncronous online service for youth. Youth can reach the chat service through the site Youthspace.ca or through texting. Youthspace.ca provides preventative mental health support, emotional support and crisis intervention through one-to-one online chats delivered by professionally trained volunteers. Volunteers are able to offer supportive listening, assess risk and create collaborative safety plans, and connect youth to other resources in the community. The chat service is open every night from 6pm -12am PST. Currently over 120 trained and supported volunteers actively engage with chatters on a regular basis Youth may also choose to connect to e-counselling, a professional service provided by a partner agency. Youthspace.ca also offers an online resource database of mental, physical, and sexual health resources, as well as other Canadian phone/text/chat lines, and youth programs and services. The services provided through Youthspace.ca increase protective factors by providing a sense of affiliation, increasing help seeking and connection to a network of appropriate local supports, supporting youth who are struggling with health (mental and physical) concerns and addictions, increasing early intervention and connection to appropriate supports/services, and enhancing overall resilience. It provides a safe and accepting space, supporting the development of healthier coping strategies in the lives of individual users. The support provided by Youthspace.ca mitigates risk by reducing harmful coping behaviours, by reducing isolation, by reducing the severity and negative impact of situational crises for youth, and by providing positive information. The site provides social supports and improves communication skills. Youthspace.ca contributes significantly to individual and community capacity building. It is part of the support systems available to youth, and assists youth to develop or trust internal resources and to connect with other resources around them. It reduces isolation and disconnection. It is reliably there as a non-judgmental and unconditional resource. Volunteering for Youthspace.ca allows young adults an opportunity to learn first-hand how important and rewarding it is to help others. The, volunteers, primarily from a younger demographic, learn ‘listening skills’ that will benefit them and those around them at home, at school and in their relationships. In 2012 we received a total of 1366 requests to chat. We were able to respond to 875, and consider the remaining 491 as missed chats. Mental and emotional health was the major concern of around 42% of chats. Suicide and self-harm are the main focus of an additional 22%. Other significant areas of key concern included relationships and family issues (18%), abuse (5%) and gender and sexuality (4%). In the chats in which mental and emotional health was cited as the major concern, 45%of those focused on anxiety and/or depression. In Class Suicide Education and Awareness: No member of the community is immune from suicidal ideation, attempting suicide or the effects of a completed suicide. Children in BC, as young as eight years old have completed suicide. Suicide remains the second leading cause of death among the 12-24 age group . It can be estimated that in the CRD, over 1,900 young people attempted suicide in the past year . In 2006, British Columbians were at least 14 times more likely to die from suicide than to be the victim of a homicide . The Suicide Education and Awareness program offered by NEED2 provides suicide education to youth in classrooms or community groups provided by well trained and supported volunteers Presentations focus on recognizing warning signs and connecting to support resources for both the youth in crisis and the helper-friend. In the 2019-20 school year over 2000 students/youth were reached through SEA. At the end of each class, in the post survey, students have the opportunity to identify themselves and indicates whether they want to be contacted because they are concerned about themselves or a friend (this information is given to the school counselors who have committed to follow-up)—one in ten students are indicating that they want help! Providing youth directly with education about how to recognize warning signs and how to access support is crucial-- 80% of youth indicated that they had sought out their friends for assistance (McCreary Centre Society, 2008). While it is important to provide suicide information to youth, current best practice suggests that it is also important to ensure that youth know that they have adult support in dealing with a suicidal friend. The current program addresses and potentially breaks the taboo that surrounds the topic of suicide. Only by talking about it will we be able to prevent further loss of life and help lessen the pain felt by those who have lost loved ones by suicide.