Who can help with suicide interventions?
Knowing which services can help is essential when considering the needs of those affected by suicide. Not only for the person who has suicide thoughts, but also for others involved in their care.
Health Care Professionals should have knowledge of the specialist services who may be suitable to help. Members of the public should be able to find this information too. Unfortunately, throughout the UK there is no set format of services provide. Even within different Health Boards there may be different services available, and each service may have different response times, opening hours and acceptance criteria.
There is no point for example, in advising someone with a gambling addiction who lives in London to contact Deal me out as this service is only available to people living in North Wales. Therefore, remaining up to date with which services are available is vital, but challenging.
Some good resources,
For those living in Wales: Dewis Cymru is a site where you can find local and national organisations and services. Also,Wales Mental Health in Primary Care – which supplies a list of websites and contact numbers for organisations that provide mental health telephone and online advice, support and services.
There are some more well-known sites, which include some wide-reaching audiences (Samaritans, MIND, Papyrus etc), but obtaining information on local specialist services can vary in ease greatly. If working within an organisation, which has an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). It is advisable to look into what specific assistance can be offered. These programmes are again not fully identical across sectors, so personal research is recommended. Knowledge of suitable signposting is essential when providing a suicide intervention. It can help when discussing safety plans and means the interaction is more likely to work as intended.
Here is another great resource for people bereaved through suicide, or other unexplained death, and for those helping them:
For more on this please look at our Suicide First Aid courses or contact us
