ASIST Workshop

ASIST has five learning sections:

Preparing

Prepare participants for the workshops by being able to:

• Understand the focus of the workshop is suicide intervention and the need for all caregivers to be able to do suicide first aid
• Understand the goals and objectives of the workshop
• Be aware of each other's experiences with suicide

Connecting

Sensitise participants to their own attitudes towards suicide by being able to:

• Talk more openly about attitudes toward suicide first aid
• Recognise how feelings about and personal experiences with suicide might affect suicide intervention
• Identify beliefs that might make it difficult or assist them to be direct and comfortable in suicide situation .

Understanding

Prepare participants to use the Suicide Intervention Model (SIM) by understanding the how SIM meets the needs of a person at risk by being able to:

• Recognising SIM as a tool for meeting the needs to the person at risk outlined below
• Having their direct and indirect invitations for help recognised and explored
• Being given permission to talk about suicide by being asked directly about suicide
• Being allowed to talk about their reasons for dying and living by someone who is really listening
• Participating in a review of their risk of suicide and developing a plan to address every identified risk
• Having this plan followed up to ensure it was implemented as agreed
• Understand the six caregiver tasks of SIM and explain how they address the concerns of a person at risk
• Understand how to use the risk review and safeplan guide.

Assisting

Help participants to feel more ready, willing and able to assist a person at risk of suicide by being able to:

• Recognise SIM as a tool that helps combine attitudes, knowledge and intervention skills in order to provide suicide intervention
• Understand SIM
• Use SIM to help a person at risk
• Participants develop their skills through observation and supervised practice experiences in large and small groups.

Networking

• Identify existing agency/community resourses
• Be optimistic about the possibility of building resource networks for people at risk of suicide
• Understand the value of personal resource networks and self care for caregivers