Buoyed by the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL), more than 800 athletes have now received suicide-awareness training through the CMHA’s Talk Today program. The NOJHL – a Junior A league for players 16 to 20 years old – and CMHA branches in Sudbury-Manitoulin, Sault Ste. Marie, Muskoka-Parry Sound and Cochrane Timiskaming launched their partnership last December. In total, 183 players were trained prior to the league final series, which begins Friday. Those players received safeTALK, a three-hour course that allows participants to recognize the signs of suicide.
The addition of the NOJHL has boosted the total number of athletes trained to 853.
CMHA Kenora and the Kenora Catholic District School Board also joined forces last December and provided safeTALK to 75 senior students.
Talk Today first launched in October 2014 as a partnership between CMHA Ontario, CMHA branches and the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). In two seasons, 670 players on 20 OHL teams have received safeTALK training.
Furthermore, 76 coaches in the OHL and 13 more in the NOJHL have received safeTALK training. The OHL also strongly encouraged billets to take the course and 159 people did so.