Trauma-Informed Approaches to Suicide Prevention

How does trauma-informed mental health care save lives and improve long-term recovery? Dr. Jasleen Chhatwal, psychiatrist and suicide prevention advocate, joins Gabe Howard to explain this vital yet often overlooked approach. With compassion and clarity, Dr. Chhatwal shares her personal story of losing her father to suicide, highlighting the ripple effects of trauma and the urgent need for systemic change. 

She reveals how healthcare systems — often unintentionally — can retraumatize vulnerable individuals and emphasizes the importance of safety, empowerment, and understanding in mental health treatment. Plus, learn actionable steps anyone can take to support loved ones, reduce stigma, and help lower the suicide rate. This candid, insightful conversation sheds light on how we can all become part of the solution. Whether you're a caregiver, someone in need, or a supporter, this conversation will inspire you to think differently about mental health and suicide prevention.

“Oftentimes folks who are struggling with thoughts of death or thoughts of suicide may feel that even though you're asking them how they're doing, you're not really up for truly hearing how awful they are feeling. So, in some ways, they might couch their words or under report something to you because they're trying to protect you, and they're worried that you will overreact and not be able to sort of handle it.” ~Jasleen Chhatwal, MBBS, MD

To learn more -- or read the transcript -- please visit the official episode page.

Jasleen Chhatwal, MBBS, MD, serves as Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Mood Disorders Program at Sierra Tucson. She is a board-certified psychiatrist, integrative medicine, and addiction medicine physician with experience treating complex mental health disorders in inpatient, residential, and outpatient settings. She is intentional in treating the whole person, using psychotherapy, allopathic, neuro-therapeutic, integrative, evidence-based, and evidence-informed treatments. She believes each individual has a unique, authentic story and is grateful to all those who have entrusted her with their stories.

As Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Chhatwal is responsible for managing the medical department, which includes psychiatrists, physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, as well as overseeing the teams that provide integrative care, pharmacy, experiential therapy, nutrition services, applied neuroscience services, psychology services and treatment outcomes. She strives to ensure consistent, high-quality patient care through the optimization of internal processes that help increase provider face time with patients. She also serves on the facility’s executive leadership team with an identified mission to expand access to high quality mental health care across the continuum of care.

She is active in the medical community, advocating for her patients’, colleagues, and profession through elected and appointed positions in state, regional and national organizations. Amongst her service roles, she is Past President of the Arizona Psychiatric Society (APS), the Arizona Representative to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Assembly, Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and sits on various state government and non-profit boards.

Our host, Gabe Howard, is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar disorder. He is the author of the popular book, "Mental Illness is an Asshole and other Observations," available from Amazon; signed copies are also available directly from the author.

Gabe makes his home in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. He lives with his supportive wife, Kendall, and a Miniature Schnauzer dog that he never wanted, but now can’t imagine life without.

To book Gabe for your next event or learn more about him, please visit gabehoward.com.

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