Hope And Healing: A Conference for Those Bereaved by Suicide

By Brian Young, Choose Life- Inverclyde Council

Brian Young, Choose Life Inverclyde, recently attended a conference for people bereaved by suicide in the City of Derry, Northern Ireland.

The conference, now becoming an annual event, was being held with the aim of offering emotional, practical and spiritual support to those who have been affected by suicide.  It was organised by Westcare Business Services at the prestigious City Hotel on 10^th of February and reached out to more than 200 people.  These included a number of professionals in the field of suicide prevention but mainly the delegates were those affected by the aftermath of suicide.

The morning of the day was handed over to a range of speakers, most of them bereaved by suicide: Ann McGarrigle, Chair of the Family Forum (a support and lobbying organisation in Northern Ireland)Gareth O'Callaghan, one of Ireland's successful broadcasters, Frank R. Campbell, currently the Executive Director of the Crisis Centre Foundation and authors Carla Fine and Dr Michael Myers.

The afternoon of the conference was dedicated to a series of workshops and as Brian has a personal interest in the work of Frank R. Campbell and Carla Fine and Mike Myers, he attended their workshops, which provided a deeper insight into the topics they touched on in the morning.

View a copy of the Conference Programme here