How to Start a Conversation About Suicide: Jeremy Forbes (Transcript)

Jeremy Forbes

Following is the full transcript of HALT co-founder Jeremy Forbes’ TED Talk: How to Start a Conversation About Suicide.

Listen to the MP3 Audio: How to start a conversation about suicide by Jeremy Forbes at TED Talk

TRANSCRIPT:

In 2013, I had a life-changing epiphany. I was a painter and decorator in Castlemaine, a small country town in central Victoria. I’d gone to see Pete, who was renowned for his workmanship with steel. I’d gone to his shed to get some steel edging for the garden. This day, with hindsight, which is a wonderful gift, Pete seemed happier than usual.

Two weeks later, I was painting a house down the end of Pete’s street when I heard the tragic news: Pete had suicided.

Pete, like myself, was a tradie, or a tradesman. We do like to shorten things in the Australian vernacular. A tradie. There was an expectation as a tradie. You’re expected to be stoic. You’re expected to be strong, robust, macho. You’re expected to be tough physically and silent in the face of adversity.

There is a pronounced ripple effect when someone suicides in your community. Pete’s funeral was in July. It was winter. The mood was bleak and somber in the packed community hall. It was a grieving community who had no answers to Pete’s suicide, no answers at all.