AutonHomme, which translates as a compound of ‘autonomous man’ is an organization that was created in 2009 in response to the pulp and paper mill closure in Portage-du-Fort; it is an outreach organization for men.

Director Tyler Ladouceur, who’s been working there since 2013 said the organization evolved in the years since his full-time position was created.

Originally, the funding came from what was then the Centre de santé et de services sociaux (CSSS) du Pontiac, and at the beginning it was a retired social worker from the CLSC who was offering his services when someone would call, according to Ladouceur.

“As time went on,” Ladouceur said “without diminishing the impact that the mill closure had, we realized there were needs beyond offering support for men having lost their jobs.”

One of Ladouceur’s first mandates when he took the position was to find additional funding to meet the requirements as they developed their organization.

“We worked on a lot of projects related to suicide prevention because sadly, three out of four suicides are men,” said Ladouceur who worked on providing more of these activities to both raise awareness for the organization and to possibly reach out to men in different ways.

During mental health week or suicide prevention week, Ladouceur said his organization would put up posters in businesses and go to places like the hospital for example, and talk to groups of people about the Autonhomme outreach program and the services they offered.

Some of these services might include helping men pay fines in exchange for community service, for example, or helping them find a place to stay on a temporary basis. In addition they will offer them resources to help them on a continual basis. These resources might include follow-up appointments to speak with a social worker, psychiatrist or psychologist if necessary.

“We do the groundwork to get the men the help they need and do follow-ups with them after they’ve gone to therapy, we’re still there to help them out or intervene if needed,” said Ladouceur.

Another aspect of their services include training for “gatekeepers” which is basically a first aid course but in suicide prevention, according to Ladouceur.

The seven-hour training sessions teaches people what some of the signs are, how to recognize them, how to approach a person experiencing suicidal thoughts and what the urgency level might be. This training is offered without cost throughout the Pontiac to interested groups or individuals. He noted that the training is not solely for men, however.

Ladouceur said they have provided the training to different groups of firefighters, first responders, CLSC workers, farmers, or other community organizations, who expressed an interest in the program.

“There was a lot of talk about mental health in the farming community and it was important for us to get involved, so we worked with the Union de producteurs agricoles (UPA),” Ladouceur told The Equity.

“Also, because there aren’t very many English-speaking trainers, we pretty much offer this training across the Outaouais now. Just last week we offered training to teachers at the Cégep de l’Outaouais,” he added.

The group also works to promote positive mental health in various ways.

“Every year just before hunting season we go to businesses and hand out gun locks to individuals for free, they come with suicide prevention information, 811 Health Line and information about our organization attached to them with tie-wraps ,” Ladouceur said.

The gun locks are not only for safety, according to Ladouceur, but can also be looked at as a protection mechanism in the sense that by the time they unlock them, some people might have changed their minds about taking drastic measures.

The group will soon be out in local stores and businesses to hand them out, and with what they plan to hand out this year, they’ll have given out more than 1,000 free gun locks since they began doing so in 2016.

“To be honest it’s a bold move to take, especially around hunting season, to talk about guns in relation to suicide, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well people accepted it. Sometimes people don’t want to talk about it so in that case we don’t push it and just give them the information, but it’s an effective way to raise awareness,” Ladouceur said.

“We have also gone to a couple of ice fishing derbies and handed out little gadgets like measuring tapes with our information package and it’s just another way for people to get to know us,” he added.

According to Ladouceur it is often difficult for men to talk about their feelings and seek out help and support in troublesome times, so the organization has found these innovative ways to reach out to them so they know the organization exists.

“The first few years we began doing this there were more fishing derbies so we were out more often. But it was surprising to see guys come out the following year and they would pull out the measuring tapes we gave them the year before with the business card still attached to it. So it was nice to see we had an impact on them because they remembered us.

For Mental Health Week this year, because Covid had such an impact on everyone, the organization handed out 150 kits, sent out with local pharmacy deliveries. The kits included information, help line numbers, a bottle of hand sanitizer and some masks.

In 2016 the organization opened a housing centre that has four rooms and a common area. This is offered on a temporary basis and gives men a safe place to live and offers them stability while they get back on their feet. They also assist them in finding permanent lodging; this is no easy feat according to Ladouceur, who said there is a serious housing crisis in the Pontiac, which in turn complicates their job.

Other services offered to men who may have problems communicating and expressing themselves in a positive way or men who are predisposed to violence are anger management workshops.

“That is something I am really proud we are offering now,” Ladouceur concluded.

The organization has also recently purchased a building in Campbell’s Bay that will house administration offices as well as a community centre where they plan to organize activities for different age groups of men in the community. They are hopeful that it will be up and running for the new year.

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