Suicide prevention has historically and currently focuses on death prevention. In this discussion, Dese’Rae Stage and Jess Stohlmann Rainey will explore how suicide prevention has lost the spirit of movement building by de-centering the people who know the most about what it means to be suicidal.

The speakers will draw upon hundreds of interviews with suicide attempt survivors and implore listeners to open their hearts and their minds to those of us who have literally lived through it, while providing incontrovertible evidence that suicide affects all of us. By bringing lived experience from the margins to the center of our work, we can illuminate new pathways to healing, community, and justice for people experiencing the spectrum of suicidal thoughts.