Hello everyone,

With so much negativity flooding our feeds and, with it a growing sense of impossibility manifesting into a mental health crisis, I encourage you to listen to this episode to uncover ways in which you can help. This isn't a show about committing suicide; it is about preventing it from happening.

Some sobering facts: for every death by suicide, there are 20 attempts. And with every attempt, on average, 135 people are impacted including family, friends, peers, neighbours etc.

Please share.

Tony

Steve Phillip. From Pain to Purpose

I was on LinkedIn one morning and came across a post by Steve Phillip. It was titled: 'I could have done more.' As a father, it moved me to tears. Steve talked about a phone call on December 4, 2019, that changed his life forever. He found out that his son Jordan, whom he had exchanged texts with the day before, had taken his own life.

Jordan had a fantastic network of friends, was loved and admired by many, and was caring and fun, but he also struggled with his mental health. Jordan had been diagnosed with clinical anxiety and depression in 2015. As Steve says, a lot was happening beneath the surface we didn't see.

Faced with the choice of either sitting on a sofa with a bottle or creating something to prevent other families from having to experience the trauma of losing a loved one to suicide, Steve chose the latter. He committed himself to doing whatever he could to have an impact in terms of reducing suicides so other families didn't have to experience the same pain and grief.

Leaning into the skills Steve had developed in his corporate career – public speaking, leadership, change management – Steve established The Jordan Legacy to provide hope, even a path for people who are feeling suicidal. Their mission is to engage others to move towards a zero-suicide community, which he defines as one in which everyone is willing and able to do all they can to stop preventable suicides.

To find out more about the Jordan Legacy, https://thejordanlegacy.com

To find out more about what RBC is doing to support mental well being with our youth: https://www.rbc.com/en/future-launch/browse-by-topic/mental-well-being/