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 Education Suicide 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.

An independent evaluation of safeTALK showed participants felt more likely to recognise the signs of someone being at risk of suicide, to approach the person, to ask them directly whether they were having thoughts of suicide and be able to connect them to help.

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 who can also be contacted directly for information on upcoming workshops. Workshops are taking place all the time and to find a workshop near you please visit In Your Area and Training Calendar.

If you have attended ASIST and would like to become a safeTALK Trainer please visit  safeTALK T4T for further information.