The Hope North Suicide Prevention Committee was active in Thompson for around 20 years, hosting a number of conferences and forums.

COVID interrupted the continuity of the committee, but there is a new program that has been developed, as Jennifer Whalen, Mental Health Promotion Specialist with the Northern Health Region shares.

“The Mental Health Commission of Canada developed a model called Roots of Hope. The beauty with this model is it gives us some guiding principles, outlines some of the areas that we could be doing some stuff in like training, public awareness, supporting specialized populations but it also gives us some liberty and freedom to be flexible and to meet the needs of our community.”

The NHR is hoping to adopt this model and to focus on some of the aspects just mentioned.

Whalen added that Mental Health Week is coming up May 5th to 10th and the Northern Health Region will be partnering with the Canadian Mental Health Association of Thompson with a number of activities.