Suicide Prevention

Did you know that suicide is the second leading cause of death for youths between the ages of 15 and 29? According to the World Health Organization (WHO) there are 800,000 suicides yearly. That’s one person taking his/her life every 40 seconds. Furthermore, for every one of those, there are 20 other suicide attempts.

I became passionate about the subject early in my career, as I was once a troubled teen myself. I committed myself to saving at least one person from making a desperate decision after I experienced the suicide of one of my Grade 11 students when I was teaching Social Science and Psychology.

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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is Comparable to Antidepressant Medication in Treating Depression By: Sanjay (Jay) Rao

Having worked in a chronic pain facility with individuals suffering from depression, I came to understand that one of the most difficult decisions patients were tasked with making was determining which treatment approach would be effective in assisting them with it: antidepressants or talk therapy. Utilizing evidence-based research in the field of clinical psychology to help them make an informed decision regarding their treatment options, including consideration of their own personal beliefs and experiences, I found I could assist patients in making those choices with greater confidence.

For treating depressive episodes of short duration, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (a model of talk therapy based on the premise that an individual’s approach to thinking affects both their emotion and behavior) is equal to antidepressant medication [2]. Moreover, recent studies have revealed that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and antidepressants are comparable in effectiveness for severe depression [1].

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