Suicide Prevention: Creative Approaches to Prevention

Janet Berkowitz
Janet Berkowitz is a multi-faceted educator, performer and artist who has shared her talents for over 40 years, following her passion for psychology and the arts. Having had lived experience with suicidal ideation, she specializes in suicide prevention using creative arts and interactive exercises. She serves on the NJ Adult Suicide Prevention Committee and the Stakeholders 988 Committee. Janet has completed the Consumer Connections C.O.R.E. training for peers and is a certified WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) facilitator. She teaches it in the form of scrapbooking, calling it WRAPscrap. She teaches Trauma Informed Care, Anger Management and Mental Health Care tools throughout New Jersey. She is a member of MHA’s Mental Health Players who sponsor a play she has written, produced and stars in on suicide awareness and bullying called ‘The Wizard of Iz’.

Sascha Biesi
Sascha Biesi is co-founder and executive chef of Skull & Cakebones, the Texas Hill Country’s only vegan craft bakery and market. As proud as she is of her work as a baker over the last decade, Sascha is most proud of her mental health activism. Raising awareness of mental health concerns by sharing her own story and through her work with NAMI and the Depressed Cake Shop are her true passions. Like Dean Koonz said, “Where there is cake, there is hope. And there is always cake.”

Nicholas Emeigh
Nicholas Emeigh, also known as “NAMI-Man” is a mental health advocate and public speaker with five years of continuous recovery from mental illness and substance use, and he is a survivor of three suicide attempts. He proudly serves the community as Director of Outreach and Development for NAMI Bucks County PA providing help, hope, awareness and opportunities to Bucks County’s 640,000 residents. He speaks often at conferences, schools and institutions of medicine and higher learning on the power of peer support, his own journey and what he is doing now to help shatter the stigma so that no one feels alone on their journey to recovery.