Applied intervention saves a life

It's not often that someone can use the skills they gain at a conference right away, but that's just was Bobbi-Jo Lafontaine did when she completed the ASIST workshop last Thursday.

And her actions saved a life.

"I was blown away that I could use my suicide first aid ... before I didn't even know if I should take it; now I'm very, extremely glad I did," said Lafontaine, 29, an outreach worker with Family Futures.

Lafontaine was on her way to pick up her children after the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training let out early, when she noticed a young woman who looked distressed. Lafontaine slowed her car and looked at the woman, who flagged her down.

Lafontaine invited the woman into her car and the woman just began talking.

"I think she just really needed to talk to someone and I just happened to be there. It's weird how it works. I wasn't supposed to be there, I was still supposed to be at (the workshop)," Lafontaine said.

There were a lot of things going on in the woman's life, said Lafontaine, and the suicide prevention training helped her see signals that the woman was planning to harm herself.

"I would have stopped either way with that lady, I would have listened to her, but I wouldn't have been able to do the key things I learned in suicide (prevention) training," she said.

One of those key steps was stopping the woman's suicide plan. Once she had calmed the woman down Lafontaine took the woman to her aunt's house.

"She said I just looked like someone she could talk to," Lafontaine said.

"She was in the 'river.' They (the trainers) talk about the 'river of suicide,' and I was leaning over the edge with my hand out to her - and I think we just kind of grabbed each other."

Lafontaine left her card with the woman and has been talking with her.

Douglas Kinar, executive director at the Canadian Mental Health Association, is pleased Lafontaine used information he taught at the workshop.

"I'm thrilled, thrilled, thrilled that someone was able to make use of the information ... for us to have people report that they have done an intervention, it is very rewarding."

ahill@paherald.sk.ca