Suicide prevention training from the Zero Suicide Alliance

The Zero Suicide Alliance are distributing this free online training as part of their mission to improve support for people who might be contemplating suicide. It’s available to everyone and is accessible without any kind of registration or login, so can very easily be distributed and promoted within your workplace to help create a more supportive, confident culture.

The training was developed by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and Relias, and is being championed by a wide range of organisations, including NHS trusts, businesses, national charities and local Minds. It includes:

• facts and information about how suicide affects people and society;
• tips, examples and reassurance about what’s helpful to say, how to bring the subject up, and how to offer support;
• example scenarios of noticing people’s behaviour and mood, with different choices of how to respond and a virtual ‘coach’ giving feedback and commentary;
• real people who have been bereaved by suicide, talking about how they felt and why it might have made a difference to be able to have an honest conversation. (They don’t share particular details, but nonetheless it’s emotional content – worth considering when sharing with colleagues)

As well as subtitles throughout, the training offers simultaneous British Sign Language translation on your mobile phone. You just need to scan the QR codes within each section, and it appears instantly.

The training takes about 20 minutes to complete.