Crisis Services & People of Color -- We Can Do Better: Interview with Vic Armstrong | Episode 71

Centuries of discrimination and brutality have led to historical trauma impacting generations of people of color in the United States. Add to this significant current trauma of racially fueled violence the fact that communities of color experience disparities in access to qualified care, and it’s not surprising that we are seeing increased despair among BIPOC people. We are also seeing incredible resilience — at the individual and communal levels — and creativity as people of color find ways to cope. In this interview, Vic Armstrong and I talk about many hot topics:

Complex trauma in Black communities
Systematic racism and the treatment gaps in services
The trends in Black suicide rates
The shifting role of the Black church in suicide prevention
Distrust, crisis services and communities of color

Peer Support & The Helper Effect -- When Doing Good Feels Good: Interview with Lt. John Coppedge | Episode 29

While peer support and peer specialist efforts have long existed in areas of mental health communities and post-critical incidents, their role in suicide prevention has been more recent. Some feared that peer support might increase vulnerability through the “copycat” phenomenon. Others were concerned that suicide was just too complicated of an issue for peers to try to take on…

…In this interview I get the honor of chatting with Lt. John Coppedge, whom I met through the Denver Police Department’s Peer Support Program. Lt. Coppedge was a key leader in our “Breaking the Silence” video and training workbook with the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Here he shares his journey about his own trauma history and how it has helped shape his passion for peer support.

Then we listened to the voices of people with lived experience with suicidal intensity who told us over and over that peers played an incredibly influential role in not only bringing them back from the brink, but giving them new reasons for living and hope. Peer supporters and peer specialists also told us that helping others helped them.