“Jeff is the best I have ever seen, and I’ve seen hundreds. His style and his message transcend geographic or cultural boundaries and he has an innate ability to touch a young person’s heart and mind like no one I have ever seen. His message is one of celebrating what is truly important in life - family, personal integrity and making right choices. Why he is so different from other speakers was best captured by one lady who told me, 'Jeff talked to us, not at us.’” - Karen Musante, President, PFEW
A City in Crisis after 5 teen suicides in 5 months!
Teen Suicide Expert, Jeff Yalden will be visiting Woodstock, Ontario for five days to bring hope to a community and to answer questions about today’s youth and why teen suicide?
A City in Crisis!” – Mike McMahon, Executive Director, Canadian Mental Health Association
5 Teen Suicides in 5 months. Nearly 36 have expressed thoughts or attempted suicide.
What do you do when your community loses five people aged 19 and younger in a city of roughly 38,000 people. Five teens have killed themselves since the beginning of 2016, noting 36 more have expressed suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide in Woodstock, Ontario.
Mental health professionals, school board officials and students seem to be at odds with how to handle the ongoing crisis. Mike McMahon, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association Oxford, said the city is experiencing “suicide contagion”, the theory that one suicide can trigger other suicides in a community.
The community has decided to bring in Youth Motivational Speaker, Teen Suicide Prevention Expert, and Mental Health Youth Speaker, Jeff Yalden. Jeff will be visiting the community for 5 days – June 15 – June 20. He will be speaking on Thursday night at the Oxford Auditorium at 6:30pm. The next few days will be small group sessions and Jeff meeting with community leaders. Jeff is bringing in over 100 communities of experience and hundreds of hours of working with students, staff, and families looking for answers to the loss of their loved one by suicide.
Jeff Yalden is a teen suicide expert. He has worked with over 100 communities in the world helping to bring hope to the hopeless and giving permission to the youth that it’s “OK, to ask for help.” Jeff speaks openly and honestly with the teens talking about his past and the great decision he ever made – was to ask for help. Since those dark days of his youth, Jeff has been in counseling and works with many mental health professionals and communities to work with the teens and school communities on mental health and teens today. 