TVCS ASIST with Suicide Intervention Training

Thirty delegates from a range of community groups, charity organisations and social workers recently attended training in Andover tackling suicide intervention.

The two day ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) at The Wellington Centre was a skills building workshop to prepare caregivers to provide suicide first-aid interventions.

Delivered by trainers from PAPYRUS, the national UK charity dedicated to the prevention of young suicide, the workshops were enabled due to Test Valley Community Services (TVCS) obtaining funding by Hampshire County Council.

Mo Sweeney from TVCS, said “The ASIST course was a valuable course and will benefit all the practitioners who attended it, in fact 5 of the practitioners have already used it with young people in crisis.”

“I am currently trying to secure funding from a local company to get Papyrus to run a course for practitioners working with military veterans.”

Alice Newton from PAPYRUS who co-delivered the training, said “The two days of training enabled myself and my colleague Alexis Hesketh, to really get to know the participants and where they have come from. PAPYRUS emphasises and teaches the importance of a community approach to suicide prevention, and the wide range of roles within the room evidenced how Andover have embraced this approach, recognising that suicide is everybody’s business.”

Duncan Crockett from Veterans in Action felt the workshops would help with work the charity does with veterans.

He said “A fantastic course run extremely well by very knowledgeable tutors that will enable us to reach out to more veterans.”

From the Army Welfare Service (AWS), Cathy Sherlock was also impressed.

“I found the whole training a reinforcement of good practice regarding raising awareness and building confidence to broach the attitudes surrounding and subject of suicide.”

“I have already been able to engage conversations with young people and youth support workers about how we view suicide and the stereo type views society has regarding death by suicide.”

“It was sad how many people have been affected and how many have never been given support to explore the feelings around death.”

Service Manager from The Junction, Paula Philp, has already recommended the training to other professionals in the caregiving sector.

“I found the ASIST training to be a fantastic opportunity for people ‘on the ground’ to support the young people of Test Valley who are at risk of suicide” she said.

“The trainers were very knowledgeable and engaging and although the training was very heavy it confirmed use of good practice that many of us are using and gave us all confidence to broach a very sensitive subject with staff and clients.”

“I would have no hesitation in recommending this to other professionals, and already have.”

From Youth in Romsey, Jenny Grace has also used what she learnt at the workshops.

“The training workshop was fantastic as it highlighted how to work with people at risk of suicide. The trainers were understanding, informative and very knowledgeable.”

“After only a week of going on the training, I have already used the model twice and definitely feel more confident when talking to young people around suicide.”