Our main goal is to provide a clear and continuous pathway for children and adolescents, their families, guardians, and friends who need:

• access to information and education about suicidal ideation.

• support for the family’s role in their child’s recovery

• guidance from a navigator — someone who helps people find a way through the

mental health crisis maze, and keep both the family and adolescent engaged.

Improving the Structure of Support in Schools

Schools are the epicenter for learned adolescent behaviours, this is where we can have the greatest impact on young people’s futures by offering adolescents the tools and education to help them successfully navigate the transition towards adulthood. In addition,we need  to recognize the potential of teachers, parents, or other caregivers in their roles to positively impact the adolescents journey through the education system. 

Teachers and school staff are in a unique position to identify changes in a students performance, and potential troubling behaviour in the schools. We also understand it would be unfair to expect teachers who are untrained in mental health procedures to provide their opinions on what steps need to be taken. What if it were possible to develop an efficient  pathway directly from the teacher or staff, to the parents, caregivers, or mental health professionals? This pathway could be facilitated through a school liaison, which could vastly improve the chances of providing a focused therapy program, and a positive outcome.

The school's leaders also need to examine the policy and tactics they use to manage students in crisis. Research and data on school discipline practices are clear: thousands of students are subjected to punishment or removed from their classrooms each year, mostly in middle and high schools, for mental health issues. When suspended, these students are at a significantly higher risk of falling behind academically, dropping out of school, coming into contact with the juvenile justice system, or the worst case scenario, suicidal ideation. Further, punishments have been shown to exacerbate mental health concerns among adolescents who are already struggling to navigate the education system, and the specific culture within their school. The concept of survival of the fittest cannot be adopted as a rational for the humiliating and vicious behaviour that is often occurring in our schools.

Monitoring Prescription Medications

Prescribed medications are a powerful tool for treating depression and anxiety. But there needs to be a plan in place to support families in monitoring their adolescent at home, and to help them identify changes in their mental state and social behaviour. Medications should not be prescribed without physician follow-up. There also needs to be constant and ongoing conversations with caregivers and health-care professionals.

Advocating for Better Suicidal Ideation Therapy

Adolescents don’t always respond well to sometimes outdated traditional therapies. We'll continue to advocate for new, appropriate, and effective therapies that:

• kids can identify with,

• keep adolescents engaged in therapy, (with parents’ or guardians’ involvement,

whenever possible), and

• put them on to a healthy pathway to recovery and mental health management

Managing the Effects of Social Media

We’ll work towards developing aggressive strategies to combat the negative effects of social media through targeted ads and education in adolescent self-awareness.

Ending the Stigma of Suicide

The stigma of suicide needs to be shattered. Families and adolescents in crisis are currently suffering in a debilitating world of silence. As a community, we need to spread the message of hope and recognition of this illness, to provide help to both current and future generations.

Expand the age range of adolescents we can help

Develop a strategy for those between 18-25, as the options available right now are extremely limited, and very costly. Let’s open that door..... And help them.