Harry Corin - Suicide Prevention
Short Biography...
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What is suicide prevention training?
Suicide prevention training is crucial. Suicide prevention training gives people the skills and confidence to ask the most important question. Did you mean suicide? Are you thinking about suicide? Because asking the question about suicide might just be the most important question that you have ever asked in your life, and the person may have never been asked that before. So suicide prevention training gives people the confidence to know that it's okay to talk about suicide. Talking about suicide, learning about suicide, feeling powered to start conversations about suicide is the single biggest thing that we can do to help prevent suicide. So various different suicide prevention training courses and education programmes will give you that confidence. And there are various different models, but it's important that every workplace equips its team members, or at least trains a small number of people to be able to spot those sites and support at a crisis point and talking about suicide, making it a subject area that people can learn about in itself may just help break some of the taboo and stigma around the topic.
What should I do if I spot changes in a colleague?
If you spot changes in someone that you work with, it's important to acknowledge that. Acknowledge that within yourself. Okay, well that's not quite right. Something's a bit off here. It doesn't seem how I normally associate with that person. And that could be in how they appear, how they talk about themselves, their work, or withdrawing. There's lots of different changes in behaviours that you might see that are different and what these are invitations to connect with that person doesn't mean that something's necessarily wrong if you see a particular change in behaviour. Not necessarily, but we can't assume. So it's good to then connect with that person, create a conversation, start an important conversation. I'm worried, I just want to check, how are you getting on? How are you doing today? These conversation starters are something that you've observed then acted upon it, and it takes courage to do that. To actually be the person that is actually going to act on what I've observed versus saying, oh, that's a bit different, but no, I'm sure they're fine. Well actually, are they? Maybe just ask that question. Start that conversation could be one of the most important things that you do to actually that person feeling like, ah, yeah, maybe I'm not in a good place right now. And other people are seeing that. So you taking that step might open up a pathway for the person actually accessing support if that's necessary, but also just having an important conversation around their wellbeing. So changes in person, in someone's character and conduct and behaviours are opportunities to connect and hopefully through the work that I do, it gives people the encouragement and empowerment to ask that important question.
Is it okay to tell my manager if I am having suicidal thoughts?
If you are having thoughts of suicide often that can feel quite isolating. I myself, have had thoughts of suicide. It was once in my life. I can remember feeling as if something was wrong with me. I felt angry at myself. I would punch myself because I just wanted to stop myself feeling this particular way, and I didn't know how to get out of it. And I couldn't tell anyone because I felt like I'd be judged. I felt like people would think that there's something completely wrong with me, and it just kind of ate away inside of me day by day. And my risk taking behaviour got worse. Self-harming behaviour got worse and didn't really know how to get out of it. I got lucky in that I was intercepted by an amazing charity, but I know that for many, many people that won't be the case. And when I started to talk about suicide, my own thoughts about suicide, it actually helped open up a conversation on the topic that I'd never had before. And I think who you turn to for support will be very different for everyone. But there is support available that is the most important bit, and it's about knowing the wider supports that are available for you to turn to. And for some people that may be a manager, for some people, that may be someone in a HR function, it could be a specialised charity, such as the likes of Calm. It could be someone in your support network, someone that you trust and you feel as if you can share. But we hope that everyone in this world will be able to turn to someone that is the hope. That's what gets me out of bed in the morning, the ability to hopefully create a world whereby we can have more lifeguards, more lifeguards, to be able to spot those signs and then have those conversations and be in the moment with the person. And if we can have more people who can start those conversations and be in the conversation, then we will have a better world, a better world that can help prevent suicide. So yes, I hope that you will be able to speak to someone, whether that is your manager or all of the other areas that I just mentioned. That is okay. I don't think there is a one size fits all for this. There are also tech support service as well. If you feel like you cannot share that through your voice, such as Shout has an amazing resource. So it's a very, very difficult step to take because thoughts of suicide often feel as if it's just you. And often we don't know the number of people who have thoughts of suicide because we often hear about the number of people who die by suicide. But actually, thoughts of suicide are very common because sometimes our world can be difficult and sometimes life events can be very difficult for us, and our emotions can be very painful and upsetting and stressful. So actually, if we had more of a conversation around what it means to have thoughts of suicide, then hopefully that will allow for more open and honest conversations. So please, if you are having thoughts of suicide and you want to speak with someone, please know that those supports are available for you.