When Dr. Jill started researching suicide 40 years ago, the consensus in the scientific community was that suicide could not be prevented. Now we know that this is false. Today, Dr. Jill and Chris Munden, AFSP’s Senior Manager of Research and Dissemination, discuss some of the research that has shown that suicide can be prevented and share some of the practical methods that may help someone in a crisis.

Check out Chris’ TikToks at tiktok.com/@afspnational

If you have a question you’d like to hear discussed on the show, please submit it here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe2wy8RwP5bwy2FG5KVRTYYtdtiucvtBCX47XvuWM0OG9Svhg/viewform

To learn more about AFSP, visit afsp.org

The podcast is produced by Hueman Group Media.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the interviewees and do not reflect the positions or opinions of the producers or any affiliated organizations.

Most of the mental health care provided in the United States is in English. Yet many people in the US don’t speak English fluently. So, what happens when they need help? That’s the problem our guest, Dr. Pierluigi Mancini, has been solving since he created Georgia’s first Spanish-speaking mental health clinic back in 1999. But it’s not just about language. As Dr. Mancini explains, if you want mental health care to work in a specific community, you can’t just translate it word for word. You also have to properly adapt it to that community’s culture.

Check out Dr. Mancini’s website at www.eldoctormancini.com

To learn more about AFSP, visit afsp.org

The podcast is produced by Hueman Group Media.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the positions or opinions of the producers or any affiliated organizations.

Join the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's Vice President for Health Equity and Engagement Victor (Vic) Armstrong, MSW, for a conversation with Founder and Executive Director of Wellness Action Recovery, Inc., Fonda Bryant. In this episode of Strong Talk podcast, Vic talks with Fonda about her history with suicidality, and how lived experience has informed her suicide prevention advocacy and education efforts.

Strong Talk is a podcast dedicated to the discussion of equity, diversity, and family as it relates to mental health and addictions. We started this podcast because we believe that we are at a pivotal point, as it pertains to access to mental health services for historically marginalized communities. We wanted to create a space, not only to talk about challenges, but to explore and to create space for solutions.

In the latest episode of Strong Talk podcast, AFSP Vice President for Health Equity and Engagement Victor (Vic) Armstrong, MSW, talks with AFSP Minnesota Chapter volunteer Ray Stenglein about mental health and suicide prevention in the construction industry. In 2016, Ray lost his 16-year-old daughter Annika to suicide. In his conversation with Vic, Ray shares how he has transformed his tragic loss into lifesaving advocacy, especially for the construction industry in which he has worked for 40 years.

The podcast is now in session! Join the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Vice President for Health Equity and Engagement Victor (Vic) Armstrong, MSW, as he speaks with Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren about her role as the pioneer of America’s first Mental Health Court in 1977, creating a human rights model dedicated to the decriminalization of persons living with mental illness.

Throughout the discussion, Vic and Justice Wren – who serves as the presiding County Court Judge of the Misdemeanor Mental Health Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit in Broward County, Florida, and is a Judicial Representative for the Executive Committee of The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention – will discuss her motivation for creating a mental health court, its impact and how the initiative of mental health courts have grown, and their role in a national strategy for suicide prevention.

In this episode of the Strong Talk, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Vice President for Health Equity and Engagement Victor (Vic) Armstrong, MSW, speaks with Pastor Dr. François Tchidjé about their shared experience in a unique suicide prevention training conducted in Africa by AFSP and Soul Shop for Black Churches.

In March of 2022, AFSP partnered with Soul Shop Movement to convene a group of mental health experts with expertise in suicide prevention and connection to the Black and African American faith-based community. The group encompassed lived experience, as well as research, policy, and pastoral expertise. The result was the creation of Soul Shop for Black Churches, an eight-hour curriculum that teaches faith leaders in the Black community how to minister to congregants who may be experiencing suicidal desperation. Since its inception, SSFBC has trained faith leaders across America, including a training in Asheville, North Carolina, in October of 2023, which was attended by Dr. François Tchidjé, who traveled from Cameroon, Africa, to participate.

Returning to Africa, Dr. Tchidjé began conducting trainings on his own, but recognized the need for additional trainers, whom he was not certified to train. In response, AFSP’s Vic Armstrong, along with Soul Shop CEO Michelle Snyder, joined Dr. Tchidje in Cameroon, where they spent six days training 92 faith leaders in suicide prevention.

In this episode, host Vic Armstrong talks with Dr. Tchidjé about his motivation for traveling to America, the impact of his suicide prevention work utilizing his training with AFSP and Soul Shop and how it relates to the “African experience,” and their shared experience conducting the training in Cameroon.

As the first Asian American male to anchor a daily, national cable news show (at CNN Worldwide), Richard Lui knows what it’s like to achieve great success while occupying space in a complex cultural environment. In this episode of Strong Talk, Vic talks with MSNBC / NBC News journalist Richard Lui, author of Enough About Me: The Unexpected Power of Selflessness, about topics including:

• the challenges of growing up Asian in America
• the experience of being bullied as a young Asian teen
• the mental and emotional impact of today’s hate incidents against Asian Americans
• caring for one’s mental health in the face of microaggressions
• inheriting a family legacy of integration in coming to the U.S.
• the psychological challenges involved in caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s
• promoting mental health and suicide prevention advocacy for the AANHPI community

We hope you’ll join us.

We all know him as Leon, the outspoken and hilarious character on Curb Your Enthusiasm, his appearances in the Barbershop and Spiderman film series, Real Husbands of Hollywood, and as a wildly talented comedian. But J.B. Smoove also has a lot to say about mental health. In this two-part episode of the Strong Talk podcast hosted by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Vice President for Health Equity and Engagement, Vic Armstrong, this big-hearted entertainer shares his experiences of:

• Finding himself on stage – and finding himself in real life
• Dealing with disappointment
  Losing people to suicide, and how family and friends can come together after a loss
• Our culture’s evolving perception of mental health
• The unfair pressure on Black men to keep their feelings inside
• The challenge of having to put on a happy face while dealing with something difficult
• Strategies for healthily managing one’s mental health

We hope you’ll join us for this enlightening conversation with this beloved – and insightful – entertainer.