State Representative Tina Orwall. Photo courtesy Forefront.

Champions of Change reception: Celebrating suicide prevention leaders

Forefront’s Advisory Board members hosted a small gathering for this year’s “Champions of Change” award winners. At last week’s reception, current and previous winners spoke about their ongoing work in their areas of achievement: training, community advocacy, and media.

Jeffrey Sung speaks about suicide prevention training. Photo by Forefront.

Forefront co-founder Sue Eastgard, Forefront board member Melissa Allison, and state Representative Tina Orwall gave brief remarks about the award winners. The event was held at the University of Washington Club.

“Training is an incredibly important thing that we do to increase the knowledge around the issue of suicide,” said Eastgard. To that end, honorees of the Sue Eastgard Training Excellence Award are “changing knowledge, changing skills, and changing lives.”

The 2017 recipient of the Eastgard Award is Anna Ratzliff, M.D., Ph.D., who has been a major force behind the creation of All Patients Safe: Suicide Prevention Training for Medical Providers. Previous winners include Kate Comtois, Ph.D., M.P.H. (2016); and Keith Myers, LICSW, and Jeffrey Sung, M.D. (co-honorees, 2015).

From left: Bryan Chaffe, Kathleen Gilligan, David Yamashita, and Amanda Kerbrat. Photo courtesy Forefront.

“Everything you do is so powerful,” Orwall said in praise of suicide prevention community advocates. “Everything that is accomplished in Olympia is a team effort, and your stories have impacted (legislators).”

Tina Orwall Community Advocate Award co-winners David Yamashita and Kathleen Gilligan (2017); Debbie Reisert (2016); and Marny Lombard (2015) all attended.

Allison, chairwoman of judging for the Washington Award for Excellence in Coverage of Mental Health and Suicide, recognized KUOW’s Matthew Martin (co-honoree with Bill Radke, 2017) and KIRO-TV’s Deborah Horne (co-honoree, 2016), along with earlier winners of the media contest.

Forefront is grateful for the many champions of suicide prevention who work tirelessly and with passion, all across Washington state.