Using her uncommon life as her resource, retired policewoman and detective Martine Laurier now works on the prevention of suicide. With her book, “De l’uniforme au désir d’en finir – Des outils pour déceler la détresse profonde” (tr: From uniform to the desire to end it – Tools to detect profound distress), the Mont-Tremblant author speaks in particular to frontline workers such police personnel, ambulance staff, firefighters and correctional officers. But not only to them. Throughout her book, Martine responds to questions we can all ask ourselves.

How to detect the early signs; is it possible to evaluate the level of danger a person represents to themselves; to what resources can one turn? In addition to responding to these issues, Martine tells us how and why she came within a hair’s breadth of dying before finding her path to recovery.

“You want to end it primarily to put an end to the suffering, because psychological suffering is as painful as a serious physical injury,” says the author, who is now a speaker and coach on mental health and the prevention of suicide. “It’s important to know that during these episodes of deep darkness, one is disconnected from all healthy reasoning,” she continues.

In managing to win her battle, Martine developed a level of expertise that has allowed her to meet with thousands of people. In 2021, she received the Meritorious Service Medal of Canada for her awareness work about mental health and suicide prevention with the police officers of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (tr: Montreal City Police Service).

“In writing this book, my goal was to save lives,” Martine confides. “What I wanted was that after having read it, the reader would have the tools to cope, to pull through.”

Written in collaboration with Catherine Lafrance and published by Éditions Druide, Martine Laurier’s book is available on the website leslibraires.ca

A signing session takes place on Saturday, September 2, at the bookstore Carpe Diem in Mont-Tremblant.

More from this author by clicking on his photo below.