For nearly a decade, the HOPE North Suicide Prevention Committee has organized a yearly convention in Thompson to raise awareness of mental health issues.
This year, around 230 registered participants from Thompson and surrounding communities like Cross Lake converged on the 2018 HOPE Forum from April 16-18 to take part in suicide prevention activities and educational seminars.
“When you’re dealing with the subject of suicide it can be burdensome,” said committee co-chair Elizabeth Lychuk. “But if you feel like you’re sharing that load, and you have people to help you … you become more hopeful that maybe you can move things forward.”
After two days of trauma workshops and mental health first aid training, the event reached its peak on Wednesday with a keynote address from musician Robb Nash, who also performed at the fourth annual HOPE Forum back in 2013.
Rather than stick to a prepared speech, Nash recounted a lot of his own personal experiences with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts through song.
For example, the number “One Last Breath” directly relates to Nash’s involvement in a serious car crash with a semi truck when he was 17, where he was pronounced dead at the scene.
While Nash unexpectedly survived this incident, he told the audience at the Letkemann Theatre that his road to recovery, both mentally and physically, was full of pitfalls and he was not comforted when people told him that “everything happens for a reason.”
“For a year-and-a-half I was suicidal. I didn’t want to be alive,” he said. “But then one day somebody came up to me and said the most amazing thing that changed my life. He said ‘Hey Robb, you think everything happens for a reason, right? … I think I know the reason. You were hit by that semi because you guys were going too fast on an icy road.’”
With the knowledge that he is completely in control of his own destiny, Nash went on to find substantial success in the music industry through becoming the lead singer of the rock band Live On Arrival, scoring several hit singles in the Canadian Top 10 charts.
However, Nash would eventually walk away from his record label in 2007, wanting to focus exclusively on bringing his message of positivity and self-determination to schools, reserves and prisons across the country.
During the April 18 show in Thompson, Nash covered a variety of topics with his music, including addiction (“Hello Goodbye”) and teen suicide (“Tell Me Why”).
In fact, the musician claims that since he and his team started putting these shows together, they’ve collected 791 suicide notes from students who were thinking of taking their own lives. In Nash’s mind, this goes to show that people definitely have the potential to change and get through some truly horrific experiences if they put their minds to it.
“If you wake up in the morning looking for pain, you’ll succeed. You’ll find it. If you wake up in the morning looking for strength, looking for hope, looking for help, you’ll find that too.”
According to Lychuk, this is exactly the kind of message that they want to get across during the HOPE Forum, especially for their big 10th anniversary event coming up next year.
“Yeah, some of things that you’re going through are so hard and they’re so tough,” she said. “But resiliency is something that is going to help you to be able to work through those issues and get to the other side of them, knowing that there is something better.”
For more information on the HOPE North Suicide Prevention Committee, please visit their website at www.hopenorth.ca/thompson--area1.html
