World Suicide Prevention Day marked at Victoria Park
Posted Sep 11, 2017 07:12:12 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Efforts to prevent suicide have been marked on World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10th, each year since 2003.
World Suicide Prevention Day brings together individuals and organizations with an interest in suicide prevention, and mobilizes efforts to save lives.
Each year the WSPD engages the global community with a different theme, this years is “Take a minute, change a life”.
Waterloo Region held its annual festivities at the Victoria Park Pavilion, where dozens came out to show their support.
” We want to have a day to reflect, take pause honour those who we’ve lost to suicide, honour those whose struggle with suicidal thoughts and also celebrate life, it is about moving forward and it is about resilience and hopefulness,” said Tana Nash, Executive Director of Waterloo Region Suicide Prevention Council.
Every year, more than 800,000 people die by suicide and up to 25 times as many make a suicide attempt.
2017 marks the 15th World Suicide Prevention Day and initiative of the International Association for Suicide Prevention, endorsed by the World Health Organization.
Building on this years theme Nash says ” we can all play a role in suicide prevention, think about what you can do in your everyday life, at your workplace tomorrow just saying hi to somebody and really looking them in the eye and engaging with them, just think in your own world what is one small part that I can do.”
