Suicide Prevention Workshop

We hope to have a small booklet full of prevention material. It is about prevention after all. I have attended many workshops in my lifetime and have not read much after the workshops that were given as handouts. Now I have to go through many of those handouts and recycle them.

My co-facilitator and I decided we would put together a booklet for the handouts. Will others pay more attention to a booklet? I know I do. Okay, so it wasn't her but rather me, and I was her boss when she retired, so there may be some of that there too.

Then we asked ourselves, "What do we know about suicide? Why would someone ask us to present on this topic?" No one else wants to do it? That has to be it! Okay, well we are getting paid pretty well. I can purchase the new washing machine I have been looking at.

We both had worked in the fields of Mental health and substance abuse until retirement for a combination of about 80 years, considering we are continuing to do this work part-time, in our seventies and eighties.

But again, what do we know? We are retired, and old. Hopefully, suicide prevention specialists will have all the information we have and more. Well, maybe not. We are coming from a cultural perspective. What in the culture will help to prevent suicidal ideation and suicide in general?

We have some of the answers but not all. We have first-hand experience and what we saw from our work. Storytelling will be a part of the workshop, but there will be a balance.

Some experience with and instruction on a genogram will be another. We will hear about the wiping of tears and the cedar ceremony. We will hear firsthand from a small panel of young men who have incorporated the culture into their lives to heal and eliminate thoughts of suicide.

All of this in a 9-4 day. That's why we think it is important to include a booklet that will have helpful tips along with great photos. Back in the eighties, my friend in recovery would give me an occasional watercolor painting that included a message. Something just right for me at the time.

Here are a few of those watercolor paintings.

The pictures below are clearer when seen in person. It is what I used to remind me that I can not change anyone but me, speaking my truth is healing and with faith, all is well.

This is only some of the watercolor paintings she made for me. They have had some wear and tear and are currently out of the frames they were in years ago. I still talk with and see JoAnn.

She is one of the regulars on my Poem a Day in February. She is my favorite ever-nonsense rhymer, even though she has never written them down before. I have probably laughed more with her in my life than anyone else, beginning in about 1980.

My parents lived their values, no drinking or fights

Church on Sunday, prayers with the kids at night

Work hard and never cheat to get what you need

Six kids was a big family, a challenge to feed

~

So, I had a great background when I went wrong

Drinking, cheating, lying, the guilt was strong

Shoplifting, it made me feel so darn powerful

When the police appeared, I was equally sorrowful

~

I was offered the gift of sobriety from the Power on high

I was free, “I can live!” With relief, I did sigh

My parents values were still inside of me

I had so much guilt, remorse, and shame-

And there was no one else but me to blame

~

The last forty-some years have been about recovery

I couldn’t change without a painful discovery

Acceptance, ownership of my wrongs, amends,

Relying on the Big Power-on this my recovery depends

~

My values are back in place, they’re no longer difficult to live

It’s been exciting, it’s been fun, it’s been sometimes hard to give

Up those old habits and resentments so comfortable to me

They’re like the old shoes I wear when I work outside

Comfy but dirty, frayed, and really stinky like my old pride

The things that matter most to me are my family, friends, and cats

And keeping my little corner of the world free of spats

JoAnn Boorman contributed to a values poetry contest 2025