Richard Cosgrove I Am Alive Fund

Read updates (above and to the right of Story): 
we're closing on a donation to make a difference!

Suicide is a silent killer that takes more than one million lives each year throughout the world. That is more than all wars and acts of violence combined. We need your help to shine a light on this hidden killer and get people talking about their #reasonstolive.
We need your help today to create an I Am Alive -inspired effort in memory of Richard. Richard was widely loved for his insight, joy, dignity, and unfailing kindness to all. Help us extend Richard's insights and kindness to so many in his situation whom he himself dreamt of helping: people with a mental illness and a life at stake.
Below, see the policy/research we target,
then Richard's Story.

But first:
Hi there! If you are having suicidal thoughts or want to help someone who does, please look at this excellent six-page guide now: Coping with Suicidal Thoughts ,
check out this great OnlineLifeline
and the special video below.
Please, OK? Know that 911 is always there to help you!

                                             Richard Cosgrove I Am Alive  Fund 
                                                       -- startup goal $10,000 --
                                     to spearhead, in Canada, impactful

1. Early Diagnosis for all at genetic risk of Schizophrenia
         and
     Life-skills Coaching for all diagnosed with a severe mental illness: 
     (a) substance abuse prevention
     (b) tools to Stay Alive, eg, on paper (Hope & Resiliency), phone Apps
           (UK's #StayAlive, Ontario's BeSafe) and Ontario's OnlineLifeline:
2. Awareness Raising. Fragilities and needs when disabled by mental illness:
3. Policy to Involve Loved Ones in the high-risk health care of
      persons disabled by mental illness:      
     (a) designated loved ones educated at discharge and involved in follow-up;
     (b) health privacy acts that take into account the special needs of vulnerable patients:
          - Quebeckers identify need for disclosure to protect high-risk patients
          - Manitoba Health Minister teams up with suicide loss survivors
            to improve disclosure by the mental health system
4. Suicide prevention training targeting general practitioner MDs
5. Suicide gatekeeper workshops for Richard's town & beyond 

Project identification underway in 2017
Donations will be updated and fully accounted for on this page.
Tax deductions will be plowed back into donations.
Tax donation arrangements  (should there be interest) are available with our partners.

                                                                  THANK YOU!


                                                                   RICHARD, 
a gifted musician (this recording is courtesy of his friends) and son of Canadian fine artist Stanley Cosgrove, RCA, 
lived fully and creatively -- with schizo-affective disorder undiagnosed until he was 37.
          Struggling at mid-life to stop using cigarettes and alcohol to self-medicate a depression, he died of suicide on his 50th birthday. A last note reads:
          “I didn’t think talking could help me: I felt too badly to tell you
          I was smoking cigarettes again.
          I’m feeling too frightened right now.
          I started taking an antidepressant. It isn’t helping
          — but I hope it’s helping a little bit.”
          Richard received sample antidepressants (to supplement the antipsychotics he used faithfully) from an MD in General Practice weeks before his death; yet, none in his large local circle of caring friends and family were advised he'd reached out for help -- how fragile and isolated he'd become, struggling to live up to our and his own expectations that he stop relying on substances of abuse, with insufficient structure and protection.
          We are heartbroken, wishing we had heard more, done more, been more.
          NEW POLICY CAN strengthen communication between health professionals and designated loved ones of the psychologically disabled.
           Canadians care about disabilities. Although 30% of severely disabled Canadians bravely shoulder a psychological disability, public awareness of their realities and needs remains low.
          NOVEL APPROACHES HELP: This young man living with Schizophrenia shares his amazing insights with us:
          Up to 50% of adults coping with severe mental illness develop a substance abuse. Canada lacks integrated care programs to treat their dual diagnoses -- harrowing struggles we don't adequately understand or safely treat.
          WORLD-LEADING RESEARCH IS UNDERWAY IN CANADA: CAMH


POTENTIAL PARTNERS
Sauvetage Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue Rescue  
Suicide Action Montréal
Living Works Education: safeTALK  Mental Health Commission of Canada
Société québécoise de la schizophrénie 
Association québécoise de prévention du suicide 
La Boussole : Aide aux proches d'une personne atteinte de maladie mentale
Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychosis and 
Services, Policy, and Population Health Research, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, QC. Preventing mental illness, supporting recovery, and de-stigmatizing mental illness
Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, ON, a world-leading addiction and mental health research center: