This project started from one person’s personal experience with physician suicide. The creator, Ingrid Dee Van Zyl, lost their father to suicide, leading her down her own path of healing from the tragedy, while also thinking of the others who went through similar experiences. She started reading more about suicide in the healthcare community, discovering the high rates of suicide in the profession, and that healthcare professional mental health has been a topic of concern in the last decade...
Despite all of this, she was clueless to the support and felt alone. She felt anger knowing that despite the efforts taken, it was not enough to save her father. But, she mostly felt a deep sadness for everyone affected by the sudden loss of a healthcare professional. It is a tragedy that impacts family and friends and also a whole community of patients and families.
She knew she wanted to find a way to reach out to others who lost a healthcare professional close to them... finding a way to memorialize those that have helped so many people, but couldn’t do the same for themselves.
Anyone can apply to create a memorial, no matter the time that the healthcare professional has passed. This memorial is a growing collection to display the magnitude of lost lives.
First create a memorial through this website. You will be led to a submission form where you can choose to write a name, or leave anonymous, then write more information. You can request to add a personalized symbol to your lantern.
We will contact you for additional information once approved.
Your submission will be reviewed and added to the memorial gallery, where you can send an invite to more friends and loved ones to write their memories on the page.
Only those with your link can add memories.
A lantern is created and placed with the other lanterns. You will get a notification that the lantern is complete, along with an image and coordinates to help you find it. You may visit this lantern at any time.
Once a year, on February 20th, all of the lanterns will light up and shine through the night.
Help create awareness to the general public about a problem that is hurting the system. Start conversations and bring people together in both the digital and physical realm.
Find your lantern and others in Deer Lake Park, Vancouver, Canada. Use your given geolocation to find your lantern, and walk on to see the rest. You can also view the memories online and updated images of the growing installation.
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You can visit the memorial in person at any time, but you can also wait for February 20th, where each year the lanterns will light up the night. This event can also be viewed online.
