Yvonne Bergmans, PhD MSW RSW

Suicide Interventionist

Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonne-bergmans-08099317

Affiliated Website:
Arthur Sommer Rotenberg Suicide & Depression Studies Program: https://asrlife.ca/
Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC): https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/

Location: Toronto, Ontario

Yvonne’s Spotlight

CHA Learning and the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) are proud to spotlight one of the many healthcare professionals across Canada working to make mental health and suicide prevention a greater priority in healthcare settings.

This spotlight reinforces the importance of our Talking About Suicide course—a quick-to-complete micro eLearning course created in partnership with family physicians, nurses, suicide prevention experts, and people with lived and living experience to help healthcare providers build the knowledge, skills, and confidence to engage in suicide-related conversations with their clients.

In the spotlight below, you’ll learn about Yvonne’s personal and professional journey: what led her to focus on mental health and suicide prevention, the initiatives she has been part of, and the meaningful lessons she has gained along the way. Her story offers insight, hope, and a powerful reminder that every conversation matters.

Yvonne was an integral part of the Talking About Suicide advisory committee, sharing her insights and expertise as an experienced social worker and suicide interventionist.

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In Yvonnes’s Own Words:

As a former child and youth worker and special education teacher, I witnessed the struggles of many youth. Their challenges were often exhibited in unsafe behaviours, including non-suicidal self injury, thoughts of wanting to end their lives or suicide attempts. My practicum for my MSW was on a crisis team situated in an emergency department. I loved the work, and it gave me a different understanding of the struggles of the youth I had been working with. After major changes in the education system, I had the opportunity to work as a suicide interventionist with the Arthur Sommer Rotenberg Chair in Suicide Studies. My role focused on reducing presentations to the emergency department. After 9 months in the position, my cousin died by suicide. The profession became personal.

In my 21 years of active clinical work, my research and education focused on understanding suicidality and supporting people on their journey. No two days were the same and there was never a boring moment.

One of the most meaningful parts of this work was collaborating directly with clients to create a practical, compassionate intervention. Together, we developed an approach for individuals experiencing recurrent suicide attempts, with the goal to help them stay as safe as possible and reduce the need for emergency department visits or hospitalisation. I was able to participate in exciting and interesting research projects, supervise students, train colleagues in the intervention, work in the emergency department and on the inpatient unit.

Change in how people with recurrent suicide attempts are treated has been slowly moving forward. We have seen efforts to using people first language (i.e.: their preferred name) versus describing people by their diagnosis or bed/room number. And we have identified that suicidality is unique to each individual and that there are a myriad of factors beyond a diagnosed mental illness that contribute to a person’s distress.

My hope is that professionals will continue to meet the client experiencing thoughts or behaviours of suicide with curiosity and compassion. As healthcare providers, we’re often taught to read the notes left by other professionals before meeting a client. While this can be helpful, it can also lead to forming assumptions before even beginning the conversation. When we rely on those assumptions alone instead of listening with openness, we risk invalidating the client’s experience and leaving them feeling unheard or disbelieved. This can, in turn, lead to more serious behaviours as the client tries to prove the depth of their distress. I hope care providers remember that confusion, inconsistency, or difficulty expressing emotions are often a result of emotional escalation and the brain’s response to distress. Time, patience, caring and working with the person as a collaborator will move the field forward.

In Your Personal and/or Professional Opinion…

Question: Why do healthcare providers need to be able to talk about suicide with their clients?

When healthcare providers are comfortable talking about suicide, and can approach the conversation without judgement and with a desire to understand the distress and the context of that distress, they can de-stigmatize suicide, thus reducing the possible shame and guilt a client might be experiencing. The client then knows they have someone they can go to rather than sitting alone with their escalating intensity of thoughts and feelings they neither understand or know how to manage.

A focus solely on diagnosis or behaviour can overlook the context of the distress and the person’s own understanding of their experience. The free online Talking About Suicide training supports healthcare providers in moving beyond a strictly diagnostic or medication-focused approach, encouraging a more holistic understanding.

Question: Why did you choose to join the Talking About Suicide Advisory Committee?

As a suicide interventionist, suicide prevention and intervention is my passion. My clients over 25 years have taught me well, now it is my turn to pass on what I have learned from them.

Question: In what way has the recent content refresh improved the learning experience in the Talking About Suicide course?

This training offers the opportunity for healthcare providers to reflect on the experience of the client alongside the experience of the provider. This makes it a “we” experience. Both people come together as humans with individual separate internal realities of feelings and thoughts.

Tell Us About Your Professional Experience & Work in Mental Health…

What inspired you to focus on mental health / suicide prevention? Was there a specific moment or experience that shaped your direction?

I asked for a part-time casual position to maintain my suicide prevention skills gained from my master’s placement and was invited to consider applying for the suicide intervention position. The political changes in the province and in education were no longer aligned with my values…. and it was time for a change.

Question: Can you share a bit about the work you’ve done in addressing suicide prevention within healthcare systems?

My work has involved co-creating a specific intervention for people experiencing suicide-related thoughts and behaviour. This intervention has expanded significantly, with hundreds of people now trained in suicide intervention and crisis management. It has been implemented by groups across multiple provinces and even internationally. The intervention has since expanded to groups for youth and their caregivers, people experiencing ideation only, a group safety planning intervention, and a single session intervention. The concepts and skills have also translated well into other interventions, therapies and understandings of client behaviour and distress.

My research has focused on clinical interventions from the client perspective. While working in hospital settings (including the emergency department, inpatient unit, and outpatient services) I was able to demonstrate a different way of relating to clients. I saw healthcare students from various disciplines, as well as colleagues, expand their understanding beyond what they had initially been taught in their professional training. It has been a joy working in communities with people who are doing incredible work on the front-lines with few resources.

Question: What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in this work, and how have you overcome them?

Institutional stigma and institutional fatigue in working with folks who come to hospital often looking for some alleviation of their distressing experiences. Attitudes of care providers who are certain about a diagnosis without speaking with the person about their current distress are significant barriers. How have I overcome those barriers? Good question. I continue doing the work to the best of my ability, remain consistent, compassionate, and try to educate when people are interested in learning.

Question: Could you share a success story where you’ve seen meaningful change in improving mental health outcomes in healthcare?

Seeing clients several years after I’ve worked with them living full lives – having relationships, having children, furthering their education to include post-graduate degrees or working in healthcare themselves, receiving promotions – still being alive.

Question: How do you think healthcare professionals can play a suicide prevention role in their daily work?

Keep educating yourself. Be a learner both professionally and allowing your clients to be your teachers. A good place to start is the course, Talking About Suicide: Empowering Healthcare Providers, Instilling Hope in Clients. It’s a free course developed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada in partnership with CHA Learning. It provides healthcare providers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to build trust with clients at risk of suicide, engage in meaningful conversations about suicide, assess risk factors, implement safety planning best practices, and provide appropriate support.

Vision for the Field…

Question: Looking forward, what changes or innovations would you like to see in mental health care?

Respite centres that avert going to an emergency department, where a person will be met with caring and compassion by employees who come from diverse disciplines and experiences with at least 50% of staff being able to say “Yeah, I get it. I’ve been there”.

Question: What do you think needs to happen on a systemic level to incorporate suicide prevention in health care?

Every healthcare teaching institution has a minimum of 1 semester in understanding and working with the suicidal client.

Question: If you could implement one major change in the healthcare system tomorrow, what would it be?

Increased resources so that the people who like working with this clientele and have been trained to do so, can.

Question: What advice would you give to others who are passionate about tackling mental health in healthcare?

Recognize that clients may alone need to do their work, however those that support clients can’t do the work alone. Take care of your own well-being. Get regular supervision so you are not carrying the worry or the burden alone.

Talking About Suicide: Empowering Healthcare Providers, Instilling Hope in Clients

Earn up to 4 certified Mainpro+® credits!

The Talking About Suicide eLearning course is a free, self-paced micro-course designed for all healthcare professionals. In as little as three hours, gain the knowledge and confidence to navigate critical conversations about suicide, support those in crisis, and foster hope in your healthcare setting.

Enrol for free today!

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This program has received financial support from Health Canada.
 

Talking About Suicide Spotlight Series

The Talking About Suicide course was developed by dedicated individuals committed to improving mental health support and suicide prevention in healthcare. This special Spotlight Series highlights just a few of those individuals who helped shape the course and ensure its relevance and impact.

Click on the profiles below to explore their stories and learn more about the contributors behind this important work.