I think Nora hit perhaps the most important aspect, and that's to listen. Those who have gone through suicidal ideation who I have encountered and had the privilege of speaking with of course have come away and are in recovery, but they and I both agree that the common thread of success has always been that somebody who refused to give up on them and who had no judgment just sat there and listened to their story and listened to their perspective and tried to understand without judgment.
Listening has to be a part of the program that goes into place. I think the Distress Centre has a lot of experience with active listening. When you spoke about kindness, I thought of someone acknowledging that person, their feelings, and their position as they are in that state of distress or heightened anxiety has to be a fundamental part of any program that comes forward.
It does not have to be from Veterans Affairs. If you want to create safety, which I think is perhaps the second most important piece, then yes, peer support works, because we trust our buddies. We trust our peers. We've been through shared lived experience, so it's natural that we'll form a connection. There's a lot that doesn't have to be said, because we already have a set of ground rules that we understand.
Creating safety creates an opportunity for listening, for a dialogue, and for the next steps whether they are a referral, developing a mutual plan of action, trying to mitigate any sources of potential harm or danger by actively listening and then engaging the person about what they would like to do about the medication, or what they would like to do about the knife, the gun, or whatever form the suicidal ideation is taking at that point in time. Trying to mitigate that through peer support in a safe zone, I think, is another important element of the program.
Where I come from with the Vanier Institute of the Family, it's creating the opportunities for families to become informed, resourced, and supported. If I go back to what I said at the beginning of this, it's having somebody who doesn't give up on us. For me, it was my wife. For someone else, it might be an aunt, an uncle, a friend, or a sibling. It could be a son or a daughter. That person who doesn't give up needs the opportunity to be armed with knowledge, resources, and support.
Those are the three things that I think would be fundamental parts of any program.