VANCOUVER ISLAND CRISIS SOCIETY

Vancouver Island Crisis Society continued to provide accessible voice text and chat crisis intervention and suicide prevention services including postvention programs. A team of trained 31 Volunteer and Staff Crisis line Responders and 14 Administrative Staff provided access to community resources and public education. In addition as part of a network we continued to support callers via the provincial 1800SUICIDE and the provincial 310Mental Health Support lines. As an original member of the Talk Suicide Canada network which morphed into the 9-8-8 Canada Suicide Help Line we provided support and suicide assessment and intervention services via voice and text. Vancouver Island Crisis Society’s empathic support of Service Users on Vancouver Island in BC and throughout Canada totalled 43 645 interactions in 2023-2024. With our facilitators consisting of four ASIST Trainers and two safeTALK Trainers and two trainers experienced in presenting customized workshops we facilitated a total of: • 16 ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) courses to 255 participants; • 4 safeTALK workshops to 80 participants; • 13 CIST (Crisis Intervention Skills Training) courses to 277 participants online; and • 16 customized workshops developed by our Community Education team delivered to 297 participants online. As part of our Suicide Prevention School Programs we facilitated: • Three GRASP (Growth Resilience Acknowledgement Suicide Awareness and Personal Safe Planning) 12-hour gatekeeper training workshop was provided to 54 students. • A total of 21 schools on Vancouver Island participated in the COPE (Communication Options Perspective Enjoy Life) reaching over 285 elementary school students. • We resumed presenting in-person presentations of Speak Out Reach Out Help Out in schools. Eight presentations were made to 800 students. Our Suicide Bereavement Support services continued. • Twelve monthly group support meetings were held online with an average group size of six participants. • A total of 37 one-on-one lay counselling sessions provided to support participants. • A World Suicide Prevention Day tea and gathering on September 10 honouring the 2023 theme of Creating Hope Through Action brought together 14 participants who crafted mementos to honour their lost loved ones.