In a powerful journey from pain to advocacy, Samaritans Trainer Paula Correia is channeling her experience into meaningful work in suicide prevention. In a recent interview, Paula reflects on her own struggles, the resilience that fuels her, and how her own story shapes her approach to suicide prevention. Through her work with Samaritans, Paula is breaking barriers by connecting our services with high-risk groups and communities that do not often talk about mental health. In particular, she is building inroads with youth, suicide attempt survivors, and Boston’s Cabo Verdean community. With a strong connection to the people she serves, Paula’s dedication has helped ensure that lifesaving suicide prevention resources are available where they are needed most.
Content warning: This story mentions a suicide attempt, sexual assault, and domestic violence.
Finding Purpose in Pain
For Paula, joining Samaritans in 2023 wasn’t just a career move – it was an alignment of purpose. She describes her path to Samaritans as an intentional calling, adding that her previous professional background in mental health and social services, coupled with her personal struggles, drove her to seek out a role focused on suicide prevention. “During COVID, I started doing a deeper dive into suicide awareness work,” she recalls. “I felt like God was calling me to do more of this work. And it’s also personal to me.”
Just being able to connect survivors with each other and provide a space where they can talk openly makes a difference.
Having survived domestic violence as well as her own suicide attempt as a teenager, Paula knows firsthand the challenges of navigating mental health after trauma. As a young teenager, after being sexually assaulted, she made an attempt on her life. “It was just an automatic response,” she shares. “It brought me into this journey where I had to go to inpatient care. I was hospitalized. I went through a lot, but there was no aftercare for me.”
Decades later, she found herself seeing similar situations while supporting patients in psychiatric hospitals and feeling frustrated by the lack of follow-up care—a gap she knows too well. “We have more help now, and more awareness. But it’s still an area where it’s difficult for people to navigate.”
Paula’s work now aims to close this gap by ensuring that people facing mental health crises have community resources and continued support through programs like the Survivors of Suicide Attempts (SOSA) group at Samaritans. In her role as a Samaritans trainer, Paula helps manage the SOSA group, assisting survivors in connecting with others who share their experiences. “It’s a beautiful program,” she says. “Just being able to connect survivors with each other and provide a space where they can talk openly makes a difference.”
Paula has also become more comfortable sharing her own story over time. “A lot of people don’t know that I’m a survivor,” she says. “But I’ve come full circle. I’m using my story to help others.”
Fostering Open Conversations
A significant part of Paula’s role as a Samaritans trainer involves customizing suicide prevention workshops to resonate with specific communities. Her work has been instrumental in expanding our reach among youth. She shared that when she customizes youth workshops to incorporate videos from other youth, it has a stronger impact. She says, “Hearing from their peers really spoke to that age group. They felt like they could talk more, and they shared more. They had more questions.”
In one of her training sessions, she noticed that creating a comfortable space led to a powerful moment of connection. “A young woman asked the room how many people had thought about suicide,” she remembers. “I was able to guide the conversation and make sure no one felt pressured, but it was incredible to see that by being open, people felt safe enough to share.”
Paula has also seen the power of connection in helping to spark these conversations. When someone knows her or is familiar with her work in their community, they are more willing to talk. “I find that people are more comfortable asking for information these days,” she says. “If people trust who it’s coming from, they’ll be more likely to listen.”
The Importance of Culturally Competent Support
Having worked with families from various backgrounds over her years in social services, Paula has seen how language, cultural differences, economic factors, and equity issues can create barriers to accessing care. Paula often integrates these considerations into her work, collaborating with partners who can provide translation and adapting resources to be relevant to those she is training.
Paula is also passionate about encouraging discussions around mental health within her own community. She has leveraged her ties as a member of Boston’s Cabo Verdean community to share Samaritans resources. In her outreach, she’s mindful of the cultural nuances that affect how mental health is viewed and addressed. “Suicide is often not talked about,” she notes. “But we’re getting there because we’ve been talking over the years more about trauma and therapy.”
Her approach is centered on meeting people where they are. Recently, she collaborated with a local teen center to provide suicide prevention resources after a tragic loss in their community. In partnership with other Cabo Verdean organizations, she’s working to organize workshops that address mental health issues within the Cabo Verdean community specifically, hoping to foster a more open dialogue.
Whether it’s reworking materials to resonate with Cabo Verdean youth or coordinating with community leaders, Paula is dedicated to making mental health support accessible and relatable. “Suicide has touched so many of our lives in different ways,” she says. “It’s amazing to be able to help get the information out there for people – the befriending, the warning signs.”
Maintaining Resilience: Self-Care as a Foundation
Doing such emotionally demanding work can take a toll, and Paula is no stranger to the struggle of balancing personal wellness with professional obligations. She’s learned to lean on practices that keep her grounded, from prayer and mindfulness to connecting with nature. “I go for walks, listen to calming music, and take time to disconnect from social media,” she says. “I’ve learned that it’s okay to say no and protect my own well-being.”
Self-care wasn’t always something she prioritized, particularly during the pandemic when the demands of her role in social services increased. “I came to a point where I was just spiritually drained,” she remembers. Now, she emphasizes the importance of mental rest and encourages others to be gentle with themselves. “As a mother, social worker, and advocate, it’s easy to feel like you have to keep going, but I’ve realized that rest is essential to keep doing this work.”
Looking to the Future
As she reflects on her journey, Paula envisions a future where mental health support is both more accessible and more inclusive. She hopes to see greater cultural awareness within mental health resources and believes that partnerships with local leaders and community groups will be key to reaching underserved populations. “I’m excited to be part of this work and see where we can take it,” she says. “There’s so much potential to make an impact.”
For Paula, being a survivor and a mental health advocate isn’t just a job—it’s her calling. Through her work, she’s helping to dismantle the stigma around suicide, creating a space where others feel seen, understood, and supported. “Every day, I remind myself there’s something to be grateful for,” she says. And with that gratitude, she continues to bring hope and healing to her community, one conversation at a time.
