This webinar examines the impact that oppression theory, intersectionality, and BIOC Identity has on the field of suicidology.

This continuation of our webinar series sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Suicide Prevention Program focuses on racism. Racism is commonly understood as overt, intentional and interpersonal. In reality, there are a multiplicity of manifestations of racism, from the interpersonal to the structural to the systemic, as well as different forms of racism including covert, overt, aversive and micro-aggressions. Understanding racism as a social determinant of health is crucial in understanding and providing culturally relevant resources for BIPOC communities and individuals and must be a part of all of our suicide prevention efforts, and understanding these manifestations and the ways in which racism functions on many levels enables us to address racism in all its complexity and truly work toward equity in suicide prevention. This webinar will provide possible actions and ways of working toward restorative justice in order to further participants’ equity work.

This webinar, sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Suicide Prevention Program, will consider the intersection between intergenerational mental illness and traumatic racism as experienced by Dr. Suyemoto and her family. Growing up with mental illness on both sides of her family and having a diagnosis of major depression and complex PTSD herself, Dr. Suyemoto understands what it means to be a suicide attempt survivor, a person with lived experience, and an impacted family member simultaneously. In addition, her experience with mental illness has also been impacted by her cultural perspective and experience as a Japanese American woman, whose father was imprisoned in an internment camp during WWII. She will discuss the impact of these issues across three generations, as she explores how the experience of telling and hearing stories can heal and empower individuals and communities, as well as develop cultural humility in suicide prevention.

This webinar is the first in a series sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Suicide Prevention Program to address racial equity and social justice in suicide prevention with a focus on making organizations more anti-racist and equitable.