Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), Windsor-Essex County Branch is making local headlines with a call to the community to help rename a popular sledding hill.
Little River Park in east Windsor is home to ‘Suicide Hill,’ an unofficial yet commonly-used name the branch says glorifies and further stigmatizes a tragic cause of death. Each year, 4,000 Canadians die by suicide.
The branch is looking to its community to help come up with a more appropriate name for the hill. Submissions for the Little River Hill Renaming Contest can be made at windsoressex.cmha.ca/name-that-hill until June 18. At that time, the top five submissions will be shared with the community for a vote. This winning name will then be shared with Windsor City Council with a recommendation to adopt it. The winning submission will receive a $100 cash prize.
“We believe the time is now to officially name this hill with a proper name, since research indicates glorifying or celebrating suicide can be detrimental to the work we are doing in education and prevention,” says CMHA Windsor-Essex’s director of communications and mental health promotion Kim Willis. “We must be aware of outdated language used in media, in everyday lives and even in unofficial situations if we are going to change the conversation around suicide.”
The initiative has garnered significant media attention locally, including from CBC, the Windsor Star and local radio.