Lecture next week focuses on learning warning signs for suicide

The Nate Chute Foundation is offering a lecture aimed at getting educators, counselors and others working with children to recognize early warning signs for suicidal tendencies.

Stacy York, a licensed clinical social worker who has spent the last 16 years working with kids and families in mental health, will teach a two-and-a-half hour course that focuses on understanding how early childhood trauma can impact brain development and what interventions can help the brain heal. The free course is set for Jan. 15 in Whitefish.

The talk is presented in partnership with Montana Support, Outreach and Access for the Resiliency of Students (SOARS).

Kacy Howard, executive director of the Nate Chute Foundation, said the course is about helping those in a position to help students identify the link between childhood trauma and suicide.

“It’s all about the connection of childhood trauma, which is typically in the form of abuse and neglect, and how that affects suicidal behavior and ideation,” Howard said. “We know that there’s biological and environmental factors for suicidal behavior. Oftentimes those come from exposure to adversity in childhood. Stacy takes a really brain-based approach to it, talking about how our brains are developing a lot as children and how that trauma can impact the brain development and what that looks like as emotional development as a child and adolescent.”

York has completed a dozen similar speaking events with Montana SOARS.

Howard said the goal of collaborating with York is to bring her lessons to Flathead Valley audiences.

“We’re promoting this in Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Eureka school districts to try to get those practical tips for dealing with kids with emotional disturbances into more hands, more communities,” she said.

“Our goal ultimately is preventing suicide, but we have a strong focus of awareness and education, and giving who interact with mental health issues on the ground the appropriate tools to intervene.”

The speaking event is a first for the foundation, and award-winning global speaker, author, filmmaker and suicide prevention advocate Kevin Hines is expected to follow up with a second similar talk in May.

Both of these events have been made possible by the foundation’s participation in the 2017 Great Fish Challenge, along with matching contributions from the Whitefish Community Foundation, Howard noted.

York’s course will be held on Monday, Jan. 15 at the Lodge at Whitefish Lake from 5:30-8 p.m. A light dinner and refreshments will be served. Those interested can register at www.natechutefoundation.org/events to reserve a space.

For more information email info@natechutefoundation.org. The foundation is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to suicide prevention among young people in western Montana.