LINK

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LINK PROGRAM
COMPANIONS TRAINING
www.thelinkprogram.com
Grand Falls Link Program Committee, 1999.
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Session Plan

• The LINK program
• Video The Link A Life Experience
• Your availability
• Confidentiality and mandatory reporting
• Consent
• Active listening
• Using your own judgment
• Follow-Up

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Goal of the program

• Provide students in Grades 6 to 12 who are having
  problems of any kind with easy access to services
  available in the community, with the help of a
  Link companion.
• Facilitate access to resources and enable
  students to solve their problems before they get
  worse and lead to more serious situations.

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Background

• Developed in the 1990s in the Grand Falls region
  following the suicides of 2 teenagers.
• Implemented by health professionals and school
  and community stakeholders in cooperation with
  the local suicide prevention committee.
• Partnership with Club Richelieu.
• In 2001 and 2006 recipient of the New Brunswick
  Suicide Prevention Recognition Award.

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The symbol

• Represents the relationship among individuals
  living in the same environment or society.
• Each link is of equal importance. If one link
  is defective or broken, the whole chain is
  affected and cannot fulfill its role effectively.
  
• However, if each link is solid,
• the chain is as well.

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Organizational chart
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Regions
Bathurst 6. Grand Falls 11. Acadian Peninsula
2. Campbellton Kedgwick/St-Quentin 12. Saint John
3. St. Stephen 8. Kent 13. Sussex
4. Edmundston  9. Miramichi 14. Woodstock
5. Fredericton 10. Moncton
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Key components of the program
Link card
Link companion
Posters
Decisional tree
Stickers
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Link card

• Each student is given a card and invited to write
  his or her name on it.
• The card is a way for students and Link
  companions to communicate with each other.
• The back of the card provides emergency telephone
  numbers.
• The card means I need help.

"THE LINK" PROGRAM
Tu fais partie de la chaine! Nous avons tes
préoccupations à cœur. Use your card!
Un lien pour partager tes difficultés. Des
personnes sont là pour laccompagner.
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Stickers
THE LINK PROGRAM

• A sticker is used to identify Link companions.
• It is placed in a visible and strategic location,
  e.g., classroom or office door.

USE YOUR CARD!
www.programmelemaillon.com
Grand Falls Link Program Committee, 1999.
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Posters

• The program is identified by banners and posters
  displayed in various strategic locations around
  the school.

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DECISIONAL TREE
This is a guide for identifying the problem and
accessing the various services available in the
region.
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Main issues generally included in the decisional
tree

• Physical health and nutrition
• Addiction (alcohol, drugs, tobacco, gambling,
  etc.)
• Grief
• Difficulties at school (academic, motivation,
• socialization)
• Financial, employment, or housing problems
• Religion Spirituality

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Main issues generally included in the decisional
tree

• Support for young parents
• Social isolation
• Suicidal thoughts, mental health problems
• Relationships, broken heart, peer pressure,
  blended families, parents separation or divorce
• Eating disorders
• Anger management and self-assertion

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Main issues generally included in the decisional
tree

• Sexual health and pregnancy
• Sexual orientation
• Physical, emotional or sexual abuse, neglect,
  family violence
• Threats, harassment, intimidation, bullying,
  dating violence
• Legal problems
• Social reintegration

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Link companions

• Helpers, not specialists in helping relationships
• Listen with empathy and offer support to the best
  of their ability
• Using the decisional tree, refer students in
  distress to the appropriate helping resources

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Your availability

• Meet with students only when you are available
  and you feel comfortable doing so.
• If not available right away, let the student
  know.
• Explain that you would like to meet with him or
  her at another time when you can give him or her
  your full attention.
• Confirm a meeting time.
•  

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Welcome

• Give the card back to the student or give him
  or her a card if he or she does not already have
  one.
• Be natural and stay calm.
• Adopt a warm, emphatic approach.
• Take the individual seriously.

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Confidentiality and mandatory reporting

• If the student asks questions about
  confidentiality, you must let him or her know
  that certain laws require you to ignore
  confidentiality if a life is in danger or in
  cases of abuse or neglect.
• Companions, like any citizen, are required to
  report cases of abuse or neglect involving
  children under the age of 19 to the Department of
  Social Development.

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Consent

• Companions do not need parental consent to
  direct a young person to a resource or service.
  However, certain resources or services may
  require parental consent.
• Companions are not responsible for requiring
  parental consent to access resources or services.

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Active listening

• Definition The ability to listen to and
  understand a person in need in order to
  strengthen the bond with that person.
• Hearing is a natural involuntary process
  similar to breathing, whereas listening is a
  cognitive voluntary process. Listening is
  understanding.

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Active listening

• To apply active listening, two techniques are
  generally used
• 1) Validation
• 2) Empathy

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Validation

• This involves rephrasing in our own words what we
  have understood and having it confirmed by the
  other person.
• The more understood the person feels, the more he
  or she will feel comfortable continuing to share
  his or her concerns.
• Here are a few phrases that make validation
  possible
• If I understand correctly, youre telling me
  that is that right?
• To sum up, youre telling me that is that
  right?

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Empathy

• Means showing the other person that you
  understand how he or she is feeling emotionally
  by using the following expressions
• I understand that what youre feeling may be
  causing you pain
• I understand you when you tell me that

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Using your judgment (decisional tree)

• Before making a referral, and when possible
  and appropriate, encourage the student to talk to
  his or her parents about his or her problems.
• Use your judgment (e.g., avoid referring a
  student who is experimenting with drugs for the
  first time to the Addiction Centre).

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Follow-up

• Follow-up is designed to ensure that the
  student has acted on the agreed-up approach.
• It must be scheduled to take place within an
  appropriate interval of time.

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Conclusion

• Remember that you are serving as a link in the
  chain and that your role is to help young people
  who are experiencing a problem access existing
  services in the community.
• By facilitating access to resources, they will be
  able to solve their problems before they get
  worse and lead to more serious situations.

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Questions?