Trauma specialist hosting suicide prevention training

TRAUMA and Moral Injury Specialist/Expert, Sharmin Prince, will be hosting a suicide prevention workshop aimed at helping vulnerable people develop strong coping skills. The seminar will be held at the National Library on January 30.

Prince said that trauma has become a norm in the Guyanese society and her skills can be an asset to Guyana. Prince is a suicide survivor.

“Seeing domestic violence and the prevalence of it and because we have such a high suicide rate, I think suicide prevention training is needed. We are desensitised because of oversaturation. People are just desensitised about others feelings. We don’t care anymore about others, the way we used to. We are no longer our brother’s and sister’s keeper. Also what contributes to that is our own trauma. We are seeing life through a trauma lens. And we always highlight men are killing women, but why? I can help with helping boys and men to understand the impact of their trauma,” Prince said.

From this training, she said her aim is to equip attendees with the necessary tools to deal with persons who have suicidal ideations. How to detect and identify those ideations, and how to get them to a safe space where they are in the hands and care of medical providers or someone who can handle their suicidal ideations.

“As a trainer, I bought the safeTALK booklets because I wanted to offer the training. I spent 20 years in the US, and I’m here because I feel that my skills are more needed in Guyana. There are a lot of me in the US, but not a lot in Guyana, and I think I can be more effective. So I resigned from my job, I left there as a director of programme services, and decided to come here for three months to see if it is something that I can do. I’m trying to put all the skills I have acquired over the past 20 years, to work in Guyana,” Prince said.
Outlining some of her skillsets, Prince said she is the holder of a Diploma in Social Work from the University of Guyana, a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, and a Master’s Degree in Organisational Leadership. She is a dissertation away from a Phd in Psychology.
In addition to her academic achievements, Prince said she migrated to the US in 1999 and worked at volunteers of America for 18 years and functioned from the entry level all the way to executive.

During that time, she further qualified herself in several areas of specialty.
“I’ve done moral injury from 2017-2019, and I participated in a research or a study that was done on veterans in the US who saw combat, and we used a technique called ‘Resilience Strength Training’ to help veterans to overcome their moral injury and it was a two-year study. So coming out of the 20 years I spent in the US, I’m SafeTALK trainer, a resilience strength training trainer, case management trainer, leadership and teamwork trainer, and the list goes on,” Prince said.

Functioning under her newly-founded organisation ‘Royalty Coaching and Consultancy Inc’, this is the first initiative being executed by Prince.
Persons interested in the training can find more information on the Facebook event ‘safeTALK Training-Suicide Prevention’ or call 622-0689.

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