Over the last four months, PC CARES has been offered for the first time to members of the University of Michigan (UM) campus community. Learning Circles (LCs) took place in-person every month at the School of Social Work, with LC 2 occurring virtually over Zoom. These LCs were co-facilitated by Dr. Lisa Wexler and Dr. Elizabeth Evans.
Adapting PC CARES to this new institutional setting has been crucial to illustrating the effectiveness of the program model with different audiences.
Attendees of PC CARES at UM included staff and graduate students interested in school safety and youth wellness from various professional and personal backgrounds. Discussions among participants represented interactions between both interdisciplinary and intergenerational perspectives. Getting to engage with these diverse yet complementary insights was a notable highlight for all those who attended!
Reflections from participants underscored the importance of taking a community-centered approach to suicide prevention. They shared feeling empowered and uplifted, as well as ready to collaborate and implement what they learned into their own work following the LCs. The gaps embedded in traditional suicide prevention trainings and interventions were also mentioned, with many attendees being open and candid about their own professional blind spots and biases, such as the language of warning “signs” around suicide risk–which can be inadvertently stigmatizing to suicide survivors.
During the fifth and final session, participants were given the opportunity to pick their favorite LC and share why it was especially impactful. Learning Circle 4, which covers grief and healing, was the top contender! Attendees felt it was a poignant session exemplifying how prevention exists at the intersection of the personal and professional. Though it was a bittersweet ending, everyone walked away with new friends and the knowledge that prevention is something we can all do, everyday, together.