Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign hey there and welcome to the very first ever episode of Awareness the Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Daniels. Thank you so much for being here, clicking like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and if not, hopefully you are able to do that asap because this is going to be a podcast that is very meaningful, very purposeful and the world could, you know, really use this right about now. We've gone through a lot, mental health wise over the last few years and this vision has been sitting with me for quite some time. I've been trying to formulate it in my head over and over again and the most thing that makes sense is awareness. The podcast and how that came to light was essentially turning my pain into purpose. Now for those that don't know, I do struggle with some chronic pain that gives me ultra sensitive hyper awareness constantly, whether it be having to take my medication or going to my osteopath, because knowing I have this, this chronic pain and the reminder of having to take my medication because, well, the pain just intensifies. Awareness is certainly heightened due to what I have. But so I thought to myself, you know, enough about me, I obviously have to take care of me, but how can I, instead of obsessing over the pain, what can I do with this wonderful pain? You know, we live in this world, everybody's got pain, right? And, but this is certainly a different type of thing. It's not your aches and pains that you wake up with in the morning. It's something that needs medication and it's chronic. And so I thought to myself, instead of obsessing it over it all the time, what can I do with this pain? So you turn it around and you say, you know what, because I have this self awareness now, we're gonna, you know, turn the, turn the page and say awareness in general and learn about others and how we can bring bring awareness to the forefront and say, you know what, what are others going through that needs to be brought into awareness? So I'm gonna, you know, go ahead and tell you what the. I come from a radio background. So the positioning statement for this podcast, it's not just awareness, it is awareness. The podcast fostering a more compassionate, empathetic and accepting society. So what do I mean by that? Like so we, we, we're in. And, and this is typically coming from what I noticed through Covid era. It's going on with the war, it's going on with politics, it's constant bashing of human beings back and forth without realizing what the other might be going through when this. When keyboard warriors are going at it online. And so this is dedicated really to the keyboard warriors, but also in life too. When you, you know, accidentally cut someone off, maybe in traffic, and then you're honking your horn, that's extra long. It doesn't have to be as long as it should be. But you're. But maybe that person just came from their psychologist appointment and they just couldn't get through the rest of their day, barely. And they're just.
What did they go through? We have no idea. And so when you're going back and forth online, you don't know what that other person may be going through. And you see it constantly. So many fights between families and individuals, whether it's friends. So we gotta say to ourselves, you know, this, this has got to change. If we want to see real meaningful change in our lives, in society, we have to accept one another at a different height, a different rate of speed in life where it's not so, you know, me, me, me, I'm right all the time. I don't care to be right. I just want what is. And. And so I'm just trying to make some change with what we have gone through over the last few years because I thought I saw a ton of conversation out there and people not getting along. And I'm pro humanity. I just want human beings to get along. So it's like, I don't know what, who. Technically I want to vote for it because that makes more division. And then we divide again. And then. Or a religion thing and people standing on separate sides of the street and waving flags and that divides again. And I'm like, no, I want to be a human first. And then that, you know, where I love division is in sports. Hey, good camaraderie. And then you're all friends again. After the game you go for beverages. That's the most division I like in humanity. That's just me. Others might be different, but this is how I come here and to this space is to try and bring some meaningful change to the world, which I think it needs. So again, awareness. The podcast, fostering a more compassionate, empathetic and accepting society. And this is episode number one. My very first guest on the show that I'd like to introduce you to is Susan. Susan. Susan, who's here and who is a. Is a very good friend over the. The last couple of years. We met actually in Barrie. So if you are some. A radio fan and you've listened to radio over the last few years and you know I've been in Barrie in Simcoe County. That's how I met Susan is through the. The city of Barrie and, And Simcoe county. And we, we worked a couple of events together.
And we're going to get into that right here. And to tell you more, we'll. We'll have this conversation. Okay, so Susan, I just want to introduce you, is. Is a volunteer member actually of the. Of the Simcoe County Suicide Awareness Council. I'll say that again for you. She is a volunteer and member of the Simcoe County Suicide Awareness Council. Council. So she has the word awareness in that for the episode number one. I like that. All right, what are we bringing into awareness?
And I, I, you know, we had, we. We've had, you know, numerous conversations over Facebook before about how we've been a little nervous for this. We've chatted in person, but we, it's episode number one, but we're just going to be as real as possible. So I'd like to introduce her.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Thanks, Rob.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Yes, you're welcome. And I want to know, you know, with you being a part of this council, when we say, what can we tell the audience? When we say volunteer and member of the council, what exactly are your duties within the council?
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Okay, I'm totally going to touch base on that, and I thank you for the question.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: I do want to address your intro, which I thought was lovely.
One of the things that I actually picked up earlier in the year was for that negativity and that social media stuff and just that divide I've picked up. I hope you heal. And I think that that just sort of really focuses on, like, being positive. I don't think it's a shot at anyone. I don't think it's trying to cut them down. Sometimes it's just simple. Like, I really hope you heal. And if you like, if it's coming from your heart, you know, it can come. Come across sincere.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: So is that how you. So that's how you've been personally responding to people that attack you sometimes on.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Facebook or just not even engaged? That's usually the best one. But thought I'd touch base on that.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: That's a good one.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: In terms of the council, I joined the council four years ago. They have been in existence for about 15 years now. Do all kinds of wonderful things supporting people struggling with suicide or loss after suicide.
So, you know, it's been really great. We're sort of a grassroots group of people that came together. Our founder, Bernadette, started 30 years ago in Aurelia and then it grew from there. And the council formed officially 15 years ago. And, you know, we have people come and go. We have a lot of long term members.
Me, myself, I've been there for four years. And so I've gone through sort of a couple years of the cycles of different things that we do and provide to the community. And we're all volunteers, we come from all walks of life. So. So there's first responders, we have people who work in mental health.
I'm currently a homemaker right now. I spent 10 years in education and some other odd jobs before that.
But yeah, it's a pretty great group of people doing a lot of much needed stuff to break down the stigma around suicide that's really out there.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
Now, typically people, you know, they have choices of where they want to spend their free time.
So why would you say for you personally have, have you like, devoted this volunteer time to the Simcoe County Suicide Awareness Council?
[00:09:36] Speaker B: Wow. As you recently discovered, I lost my brother seven years ago. It was pretty traumatic. We were quite shocked, naively, after he had a long battle with mental health issues.
And we just never in a million years thought that that's how we'd lose him. We, we figured it could be in other areas, you know, whether he got in a fight, he was manic, et cetera. But never did we ever think this would happen to our family. Yeah. So.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: And he was your inspiration to join?
[00:10:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I struggled obviously, afterwards for quite, quite a while. I got support from the Distress center of the gta, which is an amazing organization. They also have all kinds of great resources and supports out there, similar to us in Simcoe. And I went through their Survivors of Suicide Loss program. And after I did that, I was doing some like, volunteering through the school and I got into some dog rescue stuff. But I ended up doing our peer support program through the Simcoe County Suicide Awareness Council, which I had been directed to. But at the time I didn't feel like I could do like a peer support group. I just felt really like it was really personal in my own pain and I didn't feel like I could share with people yet. So I did that approximately two and a half years after I lost my brother. And then we were very open with my children's, like, schools and the kids knew how he passed away, and we, we shared with their teachers. So one year I had a teacher reach out to me and said, you know, I hope this is okay. I don't want to upset you or anything, but I'm just wondering. I have a student, a parent, who's reached out to me looking for resources because they're struggling to find information out in the community. Yeah.
So I said, sure, no problem. And I. I sent her a bunch of different links and some information and brochures I had. And it was really after that email that I felt sort of strong enough that I wanted to, like, give back, and I wanted to try and help people that found themselves, like, in my situation.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: And so when you're like, do you guys have offices? Like, are there offices in Simcoe county for. For your counsel? No.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Very low budget. We're all volunteers, so is. We're a nonprofit, so we do not currently have a registered charity number, although we're looking at that possibly for the future. But everything we do is off community fundraising.
And, you know, we. We do a couple different things each year to try and. And accomplish that. We have a walk that we do. We've done auctions.
We started in 2016. We did our first community bench, and it evolved into a bench and tree ceremony to honor World Prevention Suicide Day. That's in September.
We have a wonderful volunteer, Sean, who makes our benches.
We do provide him with some of our funds because, quite frankly, it's quite expensive, especially nowadays, to be making these beautiful benches that he does. And he's a retired first responder, so it's really close and near and dear to his heart as well, because unfortunately, that group suffers a lot from suicide loss. You know, quietly suffering in silence seems to be what the norm was for a long time. So it. It really is nice that it's being pushed a little bit more to the. The forefront and that people are recognizing that, you know, mental health really is an important thing and people should be taking care of themselves every day.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Do you feel as though this is helping with your own pain? Like, is it therapeutic for you from your brother's loss, working for the council, that you. You feel that this is therapeutic for you?
[00:13:48] Speaker B: 100%. Yeah. Like, I couldn't have done it early on, and everybody's like, grief journey is different. Some people, for whatever reason, they just sort of have that get up and go, and I want to help and fix things now, and I think that's amazing. I wasn't able to do that, so I needed a little bit more time. So it was about three years that I started volunteering. But, I mean, there's everyone from all walks of life that you meet every year. When we have our walk in May, there's people there who are Like, I never knew you guys existed. Like. And it's, that's part of the issue sometimes is getting that word of mouth out there. You know, you don't always come up in a Google search or whatever. And it takes a long time to kind of get that platform.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Let's say you get a phone call, for example, like at the council or someone, a volunteer or staff member is saying, you know, that someone's come up to them and said that they have thoughts of suicide or harming themselves. Do you guys help them initially or do you point them in the direction of, let's say, the new number that's provided in Canada now, which is, I think it's 411-988-988-9988.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Yeah. That finally launched two Novembers ago, which is amazing. Needed that for years.
We don't provide crisis intervention. There are some groups out there that do. With us being such a small group, it's just something we can't, you know, facilitate and manage at the time. And there are so many great resources out there, including the new 988 number, which is really handy. I mean, with my brother and his mental health illness before I used to literally have crisis numbers like these 416 numbers and different things on a sticky, like in my purse. And it's, it's, it's almost overwhelming sometimes. Like, well, who can I call where, where do I get this help when I need something for him or something for myself?
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: So this is just, this is long overdue. But it's been coming and you know, thank. Thankfully it's here, the groups and the government's been working together and it's here.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: So, so that's the, the first point is you're pointing them in the direction.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: We're pointing to 988. Yeah.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Which is so thankful to have that.
Let's talk about COVID for a minute here. This is, I want to. This is a huge time for mental health for everyone, something nobody had experienced before in our lifetime.
And it's not just Covid, it's also, it's, it's wars that are going on. Middle East, Ukraine. I can't even believe we're talking about that, to be quite frank with you, that this still exists in our world.
Politics, social media, you know, social media can be positive if the tool is being used correctly. And I always want to say.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: And your algorithm.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: Algorithm, yeah. And see, but it's, it is a tool. At the end of the day, some people don't use it for that. I believe it it fully is and, you know, if it's used correctly, but there's a lot of negative negativity on there too. And ever since all that came into the equation, our mental health has taken a hit. Mostly for the worse or you see people on their phones constantly and it's typically refreshing. Social media, I'm guilty of it too. Are the stats leaning in favor of suicides, do you think? Increasing. Are they increasing due to this particularly negative nature of each of these subjects? I mean, do we know for a fact if there's been any statistics released on this?
[00:17:27] Speaker B: So Public Health Canada has really great stats for suicide. You know, each region has, unfortunately, the nature of sort of the medical system and getting all that information and coroners that are involved, there's always a lag time. So I believe right now they have stats for 2023, but we're in 2025, so there's, there is always that lag in terms of like stats and how they're impacted. I'm, I can't really. Yeah, I'm not going to comment on it. I know there's a lot of more experts in that field. I, I think, you know, to your point about social media and stuff, it is a tool and it's a great tool and it's something that's really close to my heart. Like my children are not on social media. Yeah, they, they, well, that's not true. They do use discord to talk to their friends and they're 15 and 17 and that's quite unusual. And it's, it's hard as a parent. Like, you want to sort of protect them, you want them to be aware of it, you know, for future employment and all these types of things. But you don't want them to be harmed by it and you really don't have any control when you sort of open those doors.
So that's sort of the journey we've taken when it comes to the phones. I am very aware I have a very good relationship with my phone. I know some people find that term strange, but I think it's true. You have to acknowledge that you do. You're mindful, you, you have a relationship with your phone, whether you want to like it or not. You spend a lot of time on it looking at things and, and yeah, it definitely impacts your mental health.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: So you say to your, do you like, what's your regimen with that? Do you say, like, okay, I'm going to use my phone right up until like 6pm and that's it. I'm putting it away or is it one day a week you're not going to like? For me, I go like, one day, one day a week. I typically say to myself, I'm gonna try my best to not open social media apps one day a week because I know that I have an obsession with it. So it's like. And especially in what I try to do and you're trying. It's also keeping in touch. There's. Messaging is a different thing typically. But the, the opening the apps and trying to scroll. I like once a week I try to not go.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: The scrolling. I find you have to like really put that hard limit and it's so easy to do just to sit there.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: And mindlessly the time goes by and you're like, oh my gosh, 20 minutes went by and how did that happen? So for me it's like, yeah, one day a week I try to not do that. But do you.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: I, I'm more like a. I'll allow myself sort of like a 30 minute kind of thing and then I, I'm aware of the time I've been on it. And yes, it's. Sometimes it's interesting. Sometimes you're seeing positive things. You know, you see someone cooking and it's inspiring and all the, you know, those things. Yeah. But, but a lot of the times it's just sort of junk. So I, Yeah, I'm, I'm pretty aware of it and try and stay off it. I find I'm happier on the days when I'm on my phone a lot less.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:33] Speaker B: Try and get outside.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Let's say like if you're at a concert. A concert, for example, the concert's completely different. See, I have. Do you. Are you wanted to record and post instantly or are you there to just record? Like, just to have.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: I'm not that cool. I just joined for Facebook like four years ago. So like I'm, I'm, I'm way behind on everything. Yeah, like, like I know Instagram's the. Well, I guess there's something else. But.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: And my friends try and get me on Instagram and I'm just, I'm I'm pushing back. I'm gonna join like when it's going out.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: The door probably in like five, six, seven years.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And. Well, I'm sort of the same with TikTok. I can't really get into it that much. Like just.
Yeah, I mean it's, it's enough already. How about you be needed?
[00:21:16] Speaker B: That's the thing. Right.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: And. But when you're at Concerts, you're essentially just filming and then saving it for later and maybe sending it.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: Totally. Yeah.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: And I think that's the right way to go. Some people, like, they want to engage other Audi, they want to have an audience to films and, and they take themselves out of the moment.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: The moment 100.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: And you're not enjoying like what you're seeing. Like save it for later to send. And I was guilty of that at the early stages of social media, but I've realized that it's like you, you're paying. Concerts are not, I think they're cheap now. They're. They're not, they're not nowadays. They're so expensive.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: I mean, see, that's the thing you've learned. You've recognized within yourself and you've learned and grown out of that. And, and that's okay. Right? You're not supposed to be an expert with your phone.
[00:22:00] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: Right. Your relationship is going to change. You're going to, you're going to recognize things, you're going to see things in your kids.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: You know that you, when they notice you on your phone. I'm very conscious of that.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Yeah. That I've been caught a few times by my daughter. 100%. Daddy, get off your phone. Get off your. And, and listen. Guilty as charged. Being a content creator, it's like constantly, you gotta.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: Figure out when you gotta put this thing down already. And I know it's.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Your juggling would be difficult with work and I think that's where it, depending on what your, your realm is like, you know, if, if it's a business, then. Yeah. You're gonna have a totally different experience with the socials.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: Right, exactly. And I mean, listen, it's, it's again, a great tool, but we gotta, it's just like anything else.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: Well, speaking of socials, so one of the things we finally got onto was all the socials. So there was a Facebook page for a long time.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: So we're the Simcoe County Suicide Awareness Council. Amazing. All of our other handles are actually. Hope equals life.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: And we have an amazing volunteer, Scott, who has gotten us into the 21st century and on all of the other socials.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: That's so good.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: And he is just a wizard. We are so lucky to have him. He's got his, you know, fingers in a lot of different pies, supporting a lot of different groups and he has a full time job. So we're, we are so grateful for everything he does. And he also helped with launching our new website. So we like literally have a ten thousand dollar website that we had a developer, you know, volunteer most of their time and we ended up getting that website for like a thousand dollars. And it's, it's, it's smoking.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: That's amazing. So in your opinion Susan, what do you think needs our attention the most? Like what, what, what needs the most improvement in the mental health sector in Ontario and Canada? And, and how do we get there?
[00:24:03] Speaker B: I think in, in my experience, one of the things that came up Canada wide, because my brother was in B.C. when he had his first manic episode and he had to be hospitalized. He was hospitalized, they kept him for a month, which was great. And then he was re hospitalized. And then because, you know, he essentially lost his job, he lost his apartment, his identity, everything that he'd ever done, he moved to Ontario with my parents and that was obviously quite difficult. But then when he started having the same issues here because unfortunately he wasn't taking his medication, he, you know, this was quite a obviously life adjustment to happen to him when he was 30 years old. So everything starts from square one. Yeah, so they could call the BC hospital and get some information, but it's very silo operated. So our experience, you know, they started fresh. You know, Barry took really good care of him again, but unfortunately he moved around. So he experienced many different hospitals in Ontario. And you know, some of the closer ones are starting to link up their systems. But you know, if you go to one in Barry and you go to one in Toronto, they're not going to, they're not going to connect other than a phone call. And obviously they're quite busy. So they really do kind of start from scratch, from square one. And I don't think that's necessary necessarily the best way we could be doing things. I think it would be better if there was somehow more coordination. And again, I'm not an expert in hospitals and how that all works, but I know with technology we are changing a lot of things. You know, everything used to kind of be facts, right. And now they're starting to finally do things by email and, and privacy is always an issue.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: And do you think maybe that throws off the patient? Maybe, maybe it could have thrown off your brother? When you're out of your element, when you keep changing different your, your location for your sickness, if it's not what you're used to, your, your home, your boundaries, does that make it make it worse for the patient?
[00:26:10] Speaker B: When you're, when you're manic and you're on an episode, you don't know you're sort of flying high. You're not noticing that life's great.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: When you're manic. So he wasn't impacted in that way. And the staff, you know, the staff are great. They do what they can.
You know, they're really sort of the laws with, you know, you want to have people have rights and people have freedoms. And when it comes to mental health, you know, what's the balance between an individual's freedom and right, in a way, to be ill and not take their medication versus taking it? You know, there's community treatment programs and plans which are quite difficult to access. Like, you have to be at quite a level of. Of being ill for that threshold to kind of be met.
You know, he went off to Quebec. So Quebec was a completely different experience.
So for. From our experience, it would have been helpful if there had somehow been able to be more, you know, connection between the systems.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Yeah, Quebec is completely different.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: First of all, you got the language difference there, and I think they're almost like everything else is on their own. I used to live there, so, I mean, the tax bracket, they got, like, higher taxes than everywhere else in the country. And maybe their healthcare system works a little differently than Ontario's and the rest of the country.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: They also get really good at answering the questions because they're not going to keep you in a hospital unless you're a danger to yourself or danger to others.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: Right.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: So people like my brother, who struggled with his mental health illness, he got really good at answering the questions.
[00:27:53] Speaker A: So they.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: So that he would be like a catch and release.
I know that, you know, police departments are doing such a great job. They're. They're really learning and growing and changing the services that they offer to the community.
One of my neighbors, actually, is a social worker who goes out with the officers to mental health calls. And we experienced that ourselves when we lived in Cookstown. The South Simcoe police had a great, great response to mental health calls, which are a lot of what the police deal with.
And it's. You just. Yeah, it's. You know, you've got families in crisis, you've got an individual in crisis, and there's no other way to sort of. You can't always talk them down, right. To go from irrational to Iraq, like, how can you speak to someone who's irrational, telling them, you need to go to the hospital, they need to take care of you, you need to take your medication if they're out.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: He doesn't understand that concept.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: So it's. It's Difficult. And I know I'm not alone in my struggle.
You know, I talk to people all the time that are going through this.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: But you're, you were happy with the way. I mean, other than the, the, the, you know, because I know Canada and has this way of. Yeah, if you're, you have a surgery in one day, you're like out the door in two days and whatnot. Other than the quick exit, maybe that. Other than the quick exit that he perhaps had, would you say that you were happy with the care that he.
[00:29:29] Speaker B: Received when he was, when he was hospitalized? Yes, there was a lot of catch and release, which from a family's perspective is the absolute worst thing. And at the time, because he's an adult, you have families advocating for this individual, trying to help them, and they're in this sort of la la land, like they're fine and there's not much you can do.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So you got to have a good family support system to advocate for you.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: And if you have a family doctor, that's something you can go through.
We did. So that was, that was helpful. But it's, it is really complex and it almost depends on the day and the individual that you meet in the hospital and how that individual interacts with them and what their answers are, frankly. Because they can, they can play the system and not be well and not receive care.
[00:30:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: So that, that somehow needs to change. And that's been an issue for decades now, unfortunately.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: Grief is obviously different for everybody. So how is it with the loss of your brother? Is it a management day by day thing for you? Some sort of mantra you do that helps you cope daily. Or is it something that time has made it a little easier?
[00:30:55] Speaker B: Time is the. The be all and end all of it of managing it, of time not having that pain. I can look at pictures now and not cry automatically. Yeah. But that took me a year and a half to do that. Yeah, we talk about them a lot.
You know, for me, it's been seven years and you can see I'm starting to get a little emotional. That's okay. But, yeah, time. And it's, it's awful when you're in that initial grief and sometimes you hear that like it'll, it'll get better, you know, time. Time will help and time will heal. But it, it is true.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: It is true.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And the support groups I found to be extremely helpful because when you do lose someone from suicide, it, It's a very complex grief and there's a lot of shame and guilt and there's still a lot of stigma attached to it.
So. Yeah, the fact that, you know, there's these things like bell, let's talk day and talking about mental health really does help a lot.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: 100%. So and, and, and like what you said with time, which is good that, that, that helps you is they're like something else that you add to your day to day to sort of manage mental health as well. Like do you, are you an avid exercise or do you like to. Do you like to watch what you eat? Is there something that you do that helps you cope on a daily basis too, other than just the time giving.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: Like being positive, giving back.
I am like a dog lover. Like a lot of people. Obviously dogs help. That's good. We got a dog six years ago and it was like, my kids are over the moon. We got a dog because we were never going to have a dog in our household. We're grew up with dogs, love dogs, didn't want a dog, wanted our freedom.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: We literally have a dog because my brother passed away.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: So, you know, I, that brings me a lot of joy. Yeah. Our dog getting out, walking.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: So is he the type of dog, like you can't pet the average person can't pet him or like, is he a therapist Pete dog?
[00:33:11] Speaker B: No, no, no, he's not like a therapy dog.
[00:33:13] Speaker A: He just provides that therapy even though he's not an actual.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, he's our therapy dog.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, listen, pets have the tendency and are able to do that for sure. Like my wife, the. Our cat is. That's her, her therapy. And, and I see that like the, the amount of smiles and hugs and kisses he gets 10 times more than I do, you know, and so that's should be. Yeah, that should be right. The, the furry friends are. Are certainly fantastic to have around the house when they're, when they're certainly helpful like that. So I don't want to make you cry anymore. So that's it. And you know, it's. These are difficult subjects, but this is what this is all about is to, you know, not judge people go through things and crying is healthy. Crying is healthy. Sometimes you'll just be hearing a song and it's like, it just makes you have tears come down like. And instead of judging, we can be like, or, hey, I'm not going to choose this person for this job because he's admitted to having. Sometimes he cries to us. No, no. These people have the potential to do great things in this world without judging what happens to them. Unless they can't fully focus entirely all the time on doing stuff that they should be doing. Okay, I understand, but maybe there's a way around that, too. But this is why the purpose of this podcast is to judge less, provide more compassion, more empathy. I think that's so true. Yeah. Yeah. And so this leads me to wanting to know, because I know you and I first met at the Simcoe County Suicide Awareness Council walk, which is probably amazing. 2023. It was a great walk and meeting so many people in that community, which were fantastic. And some people I still talk to this very day. And I remember my experience there. I bought.
My wife loves sunflowers. And I can't remember the name of the artist offhand, but.
[00:35:05] Speaker B: Oh, it's Sarah's dad.
No. And Sarah's mom. Yeah. Or shot.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: Yeah. She had this incredible painting of a sunflower. And I'm like, you know what? I'm at this event for a bigger purpose, it seems. Now I got to bring this home for my wife. She loves sunflowers and this. And it's still in our room to this very day. And she. She loves it. And. And thank that. That artist as well. And so did I, on social media. So I want to know from you, from Simcoe County Suicide Awareness Council, are they going to be participating in any other events and, like, in the near future that you would be able to plug to say hi to?
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Thank you for that. Yeah. We have our walk coming up this year, so it's on May 31st to Saturday, and we're actually going to be pivoting this year. We tend to have had it for many years in Barrie, but we're actually going to be doing it along the waterfront in Aurelia.
So we're looking forward to that. And again, it's sort of. It's just a place for people to come together who've had a similar experience to know that they're not alone. You know, just we. We always start with a smudge. We've done that for 15 years now.
There's just so many great aspects as to what the feather carriers bring and do, and they're also highlighted on our website. But, yeah, and then. So we have usually different host. Sometimes there's an auction, sometimes there's not. And just bringing awareness. We. We walk along the waterfront and we have some signs that have some statistics and stuff, and we get a lot of looks, a lot of, you know, who are these people carrying these purple signs and have butterflies and. And so, yeah, you know, it's kind of cool. We have a Lot of. When we did Downtown Barry, there was a lot of shout outs, you know, from some of the restaurants and stuff. And a lot of them know us. We've developed a lot of relationships with some of different vendors and things who've also had, you know, loss of staff or loss of friends and family and stuff. And when you like, it's weird because I'm sort of in the suicide world.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: But sometimes you don't real like it. Like it's normal for me to talk about it, but when you, when you meet someone, you can see they're coming at it from a different experience and they're almost like relieved to talk to someone.
Like, oh my gosh, I can talk to you about this because you get it. And that's, you know, that's pretty special.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. How do people like sign? Like, that's what I was wondering. Like all these people show, they show up. But did they register when I was there?
[00:37:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So we were pivoting this year we're doing registering online before. We always did register, registering there. And our walks are very like. We don't want to have any barriers to anyone participating, so there's no fees.
Everyone is welcome. If you can fundraise, that's great. But you don't have to because sometimes even that's just a little bit daunting for people and especially if they have experienced a loss from suicide, you know, they're not really in a fundraising realm kind of deal. Yeah. But yeah, so we, we have our walk and we go down along the waterfront.
We've gotten a lot of good feedback about throwing rose petals into the water. So you kind of have a quiet moment. We have a very talented musician, Lee, who plays some wonderful songs and she does a lot of fundraising as well with her CDs for us, which is awesome.
But yeah, it's a really. It like to me, for me it's going to be my fourth walk. It'll be my fifth bench ceremony in the fall.
But yeah, it's different. Different people from walks of life and we always have, you know, people like care responders. So if someone is overwhelmed and having some emotions or having a bit of a breakdown, there's always someone there to take care of them. So we also have a, like someone first responder who helps us with walking in case anyone needs any and has any health issues or anything. Can't quite make the walk. But we usually try and keep it, you know, pretty, pretty short. We're usually two and a half to five kilometers. Yeah.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: So again. May 23rd.
[00:39:18] Speaker B: May 31st.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: May 31st. May 31. And sign up. Registration. That is it.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: Yep. That's going to be. So it's on our website, but you can also go to Facebook or any of our other socials.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: What's the website?
[00:39:29] Speaker B: The website is Hope Equals Life.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: Hope equals life dot com.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: That's.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: Hope equals. Like that.
[00:39:43] Speaker B: Commerce. You'll have to check.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: Okay. Hope equals life ca. Hope equals life dot com. All right, sounds good. I. I will definitely be looking at that as well. And hey, if you need an mc, I. Well, you may have someone ready in mind. It's okay.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: No, I actually don't. And I was totally gonna hit you up. I don't know if you're willing. Willing to make the drive. We'll see all the way.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: We'll have our Facebook messenger chat and we'll. We'll figure that out.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll figure it out.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: One step at a time. And listen, I'm so thankful that you came here today and opened up and we're willing to talk about mental health and the way it's moving forward and some of your own personal stories. That's what this world needs more of and less judgment. So thank you. Thank you for being here.
[00:40:26] Speaker B: Oh, thanks for having me. And Pretty special to be a part of your new podcast. And I, like, when I heard this is what you were doing, I was beyond, you know, excited for you, so. And I know lots of people are, so thank you.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: That's. It means a lot. I just want to be helpful to the world as best as I know how. And. And I'm thankful to just be doing this. And. And, you know, I guess. I guess there is positivity to pain.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: I think so.
[00:40:54] Speaker A: Right. And we. And we figure that out once we. Once we learn about it more often. You know, the first couple years are like, what is this? But. And I try and tell this to my mother too often because she's got pain. She had a couple of hip surgeries, and I'm like, maybe there's something you can do with it, too. I know it sucks. It does. But what can you. And she's working at it. I mean, she. Like, right now she's in Mexico, so that's one thing you can do with it. Her pain's better in Mexico, the heat and such, so. But hopefully she finds other things as well to keep busy, to keep. It's about keeping distracted, right? Yeah. And, you know, my uncle reminds me of that, too. He'll say, like, you know, when you're in conversation. Now, do you feel your pain? No, not really. Because you're not thinking of it, but when you're constantly thinking of it, then it's. It's there.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: That, like, human connection is so key. Right.
[00:41:40] Speaker A: And.
[00:41:40] Speaker B: And sure, you get it through your phone, but sometimes it's just better in person.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: In person.
[00:41:45] Speaker B: Better in a phone call. I had one of the volunteers call me the other day about an art project we were looking into. And, like, I got off the phone and I was, like, so excited about it. I thought, this is great. Yeah. A new initiative, and.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: Yeah, fantastic. Well, I gotta give you a hug.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: Thanks, Rob.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: Guest number one. Thank you so much for being here. And, yeah, you know, I wish you.
[00:42:05] Speaker B: All the best with this. Sincerely.
[00:42:06] Speaker A: Thank you. First guest on episode one, Awareness, the podcast, Suzanne of the Simcoe County Suicide Awareness Council. So make sure you look that up online and show up to that walk. Register May 31 for the Suicide Awareness Council walk. All right. Thank you so much for being here. Like, subscribe. You can find this podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Rob Daniels. This is Awareness, the podcast. We'll catch you next time.
[00:42:41] Speaker B: Sa.
