Wellington County residents who have lost family members to suicide are among the guests of a new podcast from the Canadian Mental Health Association of Waterloo-Wellington (CMHAWW) and the County of Wellington. But conversations centre on resilience, not trauma.
“We’re focused on how they moved past that,” said Stories4Hope host Cecilia Marie Roberts. “And how they’ve turned that tragedy into a passion for the community and for their work.”
Launched Friday the four-episode series is part of CMHAWW’s suicide prevention program Here4Hope’s annual community engagement campaign in partnership with the County of Wellington. This year's theme is resilience.
When she’s not on mic, Roberts is suicide prevention project lead for CMHAWW.
“I’m hoping that listeners will have more of an opportunity to connect and relate to the individuals in this sort of medium,” she explained.
Compared to a presentation or speech, podcasts allow for a more in-depth exploration of nuances, Roberts said.
Guests include Michelle Peek, executive director of Art Not Shame, portrait artist Wayne Simpson, and Myrna Hutchinson, an Arthur woman who founded the suicide prevention organization Get in Touch for Hutch after the death of her son. Jane Brown, a member of CMHAWW’s Support After Suicide Team is also featured on a episode.
Because Brown has lost loved ones to suicide, the people she supports in the course of her work feel “an instant connection,” Roberts explained.
They’re also able to see a model of resiliency.
“They can look at her and say ‘well you were in this horrible place that I’m in, but look at you today,” Roberts said.
More broadly, that’s what Stories4Hope seeks to accomplish by sharing frank conversations about mental health.
“We want for our listeners to be able to understand that, you know, we all experience struggle and sometimes for some people that struggle can be unimaginable, but it doesn’t mean you can’t learn or move to a place of hope,” she said.
Podcast episodes are set to be released each Friday for the next month. At this point it's a four-part series, but Roberts said she "wouldn't be surprised" if CAMHWW decides to create further episodes.
Accompanying the podcast, Here4Hope will be sharing a nine-part visual series on it social media channels and working with local libraries to create a reading list of books related to resiliency.
Access the podcast here.
