The co-chair of a conference on suicide and depression in Olds says she's thinking seriously of holding another one next year.
“I'm thinking of it. But you know, I have to just see about it. I just need a minute or two to just swallow this one. But I mean, if the good Lord directs me into doing it again, I guess then I will do it again,” Andrea Hawiuk said during an interview with the Albertan.
“There were people there really hurting, right? And I think maybe we saved a life or two there. I think we touched a lot of people.”
The theme for the all-day conference, held this past Saturday, Sept. 10 at the Pomeroy Inn & Suites, was “the conversation has to happen.”
About 280 people attended the event, packing conference rooms in the facility.
Hawiuk, who co-chaired the approximately 10-member organizing committee with Murray Elliott, was astounded at the turnout.
“When we talked as a group, we would say, ‘oh, we're going to do really well if we come to around 200 or something,'” she said.
“There were people there from Edmonton, Calgary, Sylvan Lake, Athabasca. They came from all over the place when they heard about it. There were 20 people who came that were not even registered.”
Hawiuk got the idea for the conference in about June 2015.
“I know people who have committed suicide and I know people who are depressed,” she said.
“I guess the thing that really made it so that I would do this, this lady, she was only in her 40s and she just did the suicide thing and she had two teenaged boys and to me, that had to be a desperate, desperate, desperate thing on her part to be able to do that with two teenage sons. Something had to be really wrong.”
So she approached Elliott and the organizing began.
“I prayed a lot about it because I believe in that. I do Moonbeams for Miracles, I did that for 30-some years and this thing always came up, came up, came up,” she said.
Hawiuk is buoyed by how successful the conference was. Seven speakers, including several who had suffered from depression or anxiety addressed the crowd, as did local psychologist Dr. Jody Carrington.
“The community of Olds, they were so supportive it was unreal,” she said. “They supported this and donated like you wouldn't believe.”
Attendees were asked to fill out evaluations of the conference.
“I've read about 50 of them and in huge letters on a lot of them it says, ‘excellent'. There's no negative talk in any of them. They just said they would come again, ‘when is the next one',” Hawiuk said.
Some evaluators said there should be more “spiritual things” in the conference. Hawiuk is considering that idea.
Another comment indicated there should be more breaks so people could mingle. Hawiuk could sympathize with that desire, but noted organizers had to ensure they had enough time for all the speakers.
- See related commentary on page 6.
"There were people there really hurting, right? And I think maybe we saved a life or two there."ANDREA HAWIUKCO-CHAIR SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION CONFERENCE CO-CHAIR
