LCU holds suicide intervention workshop
Louisiana Christian University School of Social Work hosted a two-day interactive Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) workshop March 19-20.
Save Cenla co-founders Angela and Andy Dixon facilitated the event. They started the organization, which is dedicated to mental health awareness and suicide prevention, following the 2014 suicide of their 17-year-old son Adam.
“We wanted to educate people so they didn’t suffer in silence,” Angela said.
The Dixons attended two ASIST workshops themselves and have since trained more than 4700 people across Louisiana.
“It’s so effective, people have wanted to take it back to their areas of the state,” she said. “It teaches people how to talk about it [mental health] and how to approach someone.”
The ASIST method helps people not only recognize when someone may be struggling with mental health issues and suicidal thoughts but also offers the tools to help.
“It’s the difference between forcing them to get help and them wanting to get help and knowing how,” Angela said.
The Dixons said they didn’t realize their son was struggling with suicidal thoughts. He was involved in sports and many extra-curricular activities in school, and he never got into any trouble.
“He did all these things, and he wasn’t diagnosed,” Angela said. “We just thought everybody goes through things. We know if we’d had these skills then we would have known how to talk to him.”
The LCU social work program has hosted the training for its students for several years but opened the training up to all LCU students, faculty and staff to attend this year.
“It is important training for everyone with or without a degree,” said Vanessa Graves, assistant professor of social work and MSW field director. “It is focused on training the everyday person in the community to be able to confidently respond to a suicidal individual.”
The training aligns with social work courses in crisis intervention and grief and loss, she said.
“As a helping profession, we recognize that our graduates will be working in crisis situations often, and this hands-on training gives them practical application as well as teaching an evidence-based intervention,” Graves said.
Angela said she wants people to realize that mental health is equally important as any other kind of body ailment to be concerned about. Although there remains a stigma attached to mental health, it is decreasing.
“Our vision is to train everyone,” she said, “and teach people it is OK to not be OK and to seek help.”
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Media Release | March 20, 2026 | Pineville, Louisiana
Contact: Dr. Elizabeth B. Clarke, Director of University Communications | Elizabeth.clarke@lcuniversity.edu