Jon Gossett went to Wendover on Wednesday. But this time he drove instead of walked.
Gossett is the founder and president of Life’s Worth Living Foundation, a Tooele County-based non-profit organization that provides suicide awareness, prevention and education.
In April, he led a 100-mile “Walk to Wendover” to draw attention to suicide prevention efforts in the county.
Prior to the walk, Gossett said he wanted to make sure everybody knows about the foundation’s suicide prevention and awareness efforts, from one end of the county to the other.
The county had lost five residents to death by suicide in the three weeks that preceded the Walk to Wendover, according to Gossett.
“The walk was designed to gain awareness for suicide, the foundation’s programs, and to bring resources to Wendover, while raising funds for the foundation,” he said.
At the conclusion of the walk, Gossett held a rally in a hangar at Wendover Historic Airfield.
Mike Crawford, mayor of Wendover, Utah, and Daniel Corona, mayor of West Wendover, Nevada, attended the rally.
Both mayors accepted Gossett’s invitation to bring the foundation’s awareness and prevention training to their communities.
When Gossett went to Wendover on Wednesday, this time he drove his car and brought with him Taryn Hiatt, director for the Nevada/Utah area of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Hiatt facilitated a two-hour suicide alertness training called SafeTALK at West Wendover City Hall.
SafeTALK is a program offered by LivingWorks Education, an international suicide intervention training company.
A key principle of SafeTALK is dispelling the myth that talking about suicide causes suicide, according to Hiatt.
“There is this fear that talking about suicide plants the idea in people’s minds,” she said. “That isn’t true.”
Some people avoid getting involved when they suspect the potential for suicide, because they feel unprepared and don’t know how to respond, according to Hiatt.
“SafeTALK helps people feel more empowered and teaches a few tools to use,” she said.
SafeTALK uses the acronym TALK for Tell, Ask, Listen, and Keep safe, to help participants remember the steps to link people in crisis with the help they need.
The “tell” step teaches that people thinking about suicide often send out messages that indicate what they are thinking.
Rather than a direct “I’m thinking about suicide,” these messages take the form of changes in actions, verbal cues, or feelings, according to SafeTALK.
Unfortunately these messages are often missed, dismissed, or avoided by people around them, according to Hiatt.
In the “ask” step, SafeTALK empowers individuals to relate their observations and ask directly, “Are you thinking about suicide?”
Participants are then taught to encourage the person to talk and then to listen actively.
The final step, “keep safe,” teaches participants how to link the person with a qualified community resource, like a hotline or a trained crisis counselor.
Hiatt also promoted the use of the SafeUT app for smartphones.
For the Life’s Worth Living Foundation, trainings like SafeTALK are a way of continuing the public dialogue about suicide.
SafeTALK-training makes communities like Wendover, a “suicide-safer community,” according to LivingWorks.
For Gossett, Wednesday’s training was a promise fulfilled to a remote community.
“Wendover is often a forgotten part of Tooele County,” he said.