safeTALK Training
Learn Suicide Alertness Skills
safeTALK is intended as "suicide alertness"
training. safeTALK teaches community members to recognise
persons with thoughts of suicide and to connect them to suicide
intervention resources. It is designed for communities or
organisations that already have ASIST trained helpers in place
to maximise intervention as the main suicide prevention
focus.
As a LivingWorks EducationSuicide Intervention programme it
is based on certain fundamental assumptions about
suicide.
- Suicide is a community wide health problem
- Suicide is not mental illness
- Thoughts of suicide are understandable, complex and
personal
- Suicide can be prevented
- Most people with thoughts of suicide want to live
- Most people with thoughts of suicide indicate, directly or
indirectly, that they want help to live
- Help-seeking is encouraged by open, direct and honest talk
about suicide
- The best way to identify people with thoughts of suicide is to
ask them directly about their thoughts
- Relationships are the context of suicide intervention
- Intervention should be the main suicide prevention focus
- Cooperation is the essence of intervention
- Intervention skills are known and can be learned
- Large numbers of people can be taught intervention skills
- Evidence of effectiveness should be broadly defined
safeTALK is a half day session and is in response to a
long-known need for a short program (2.5-3.5 hours). It is taught
by one trainer with groups of up to 30 participants to teach
abilities that complement the work of ASIST and other
intervention-trained helpers. Participants learn how to provide
practical help to persons with thoughts of suicide in only a few
hours. safeTALK prepares participants to activate a suicide
alert by following the TALK (Tell, Ask, Listen and KeepSafe)
steps.
An alert helper:
-
is aware that opportunities to help a person with thoughts of
suicide are sometimes missed, dismissed and avoided.
-
wants persons with thoughts of suicide to invite them to
help.
-
recognises when a person might be having thoughts of
suicide
-
engages a person with thoughts in direct and open talk about
suicide.
-
listens to the person's talk about suicide to show that they
take the thoughts seriously.
-
knows the name and contact information of local suicide
intervention resources.
-
moves quickly to connect the person with thoughts to someone
trained in suicide intervention.
To date, over 3,000 people have been trained in safeTALK
across Scotland in a broad range of settings. safeTALK is
delivered locally within each local authority by a network
of safeTALK trainers.
please click below for New Dates in 2012:
safeTalk
Application Document
SafeTALK
Frequently Asked Questions
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