In the latest episode of Strong Talk podcast, AFSP Vice President for Health Equity and Engagement Victor (Vic) Armstrong, MSW, talks with AFSP Minnesota Chapter volunteer Ray Stenglein about mental health and suicide prevention in the construction industry. In 2016, Ray lost his 16-year-old daughter Annika to suicide. In his conversation with Vic, Ray shares how he has transformed his tragic loss into lifesaving advocacy, especially for the construction industry in which he has worked for 40 years.

Strong Talk is a podcast dedicated to the discussion of equity, diversity, and family as it relates to mental health and addictions. We started this podcast because we believe that we are at a pivotal point, as it pertains to access to mental health services for historically marginalized communities. We wanted to create a space, not only to talk about challenges, but to explore and to create space for solutions.

The podcast is now in session! Join the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Vice President for Health Equity and Engagement Victor (Vic) Armstrong, MSW, as he speaks with Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren about her role as the pioneer of America’s first Mental Health Court in 1977, creating a human rights model dedicated to the decriminalization of persons living with mental illness.

Throughout the discussion, Vic and Justice Wren – who serves as the presiding County Court Judge of the Misdemeanor Mental Health Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit in Broward County, Florida, and is a Judicial Representative for the Executive Committee of The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention – will discuss her motivation for creating a mental health court, its impact and how the initiative of mental health courts have grown, and their role in a national strategy for suicide prevention.

Strong Talk is a podcast dedicated to the discussion of equity, diversity, and family as it relates to mental health and addictions. We started this podcast because we believe that we are at a pivotal point, as it pertains to access to mental health services for historically marginalized communities. We wanted to create a space, not only to talk about challenges, but to explore and to create space for solutions.

In this episode of the Strong Talk, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Vice President for Health Equity and Engagement Victor (Vic) Armstrong, MSW, speaks with Pastor Dr. François Tchidjé about their shared experience in a unique suicide prevention training conducted in Africa by AFSP and Soul Shop for Black Churches.

In March of 2022, AFSP partnered with Soul Shop Movement to convene a group of mental health experts with expertise in suicide prevention and connection to the Black and African American faith-based community. The group encompassed lived experience, as well as research, policy, and pastoral expertise. The result was the creation of Soul Shop for Black Churches, an eight-hour curriculum that teaches faith leaders in the Black community how to minister to congregants who may be experiencing suicidal desperation. Since its inception, SSFBC has trained faith leaders across America, including a training in Asheville, North Carolina, in October of 2023, which was attended by Dr. François Tchidjé, who traveled from Cameroon, Africa, to participate.

Returning to Africa, Dr. Tchidjé began conducting trainings on his own, but recognized the need for additional trainers, whom he was not certified to train. In response, AFSP’s Vic Armstrong, along with Soul Shop CEO Michelle Snyder, joined Dr. Tchidje in Cameroon, where they spent six days training 92 faith leaders in suicide prevention.

In this episode, host Vic Armstrong talks with Dr. Tchidjé about his motivation for traveling to America, the impact of his suicide prevention work utilizing his training with AFSP and Soul Shop and how it relates to the “African experience,” and their shared experience conducting the training in Cameroon.

Strong Talk is a podcast dedicated to the discussion of equity, diversity, and family as it relates to mental health and addictions. We started this podcast because we believe that we are at a pivotal point, as it pertains to access to mental health services for historically marginalized communities. We wanted to create a space, not only to talk about challenges, but to explore and to create space for solutions.