Overview
Our Mind Your Mate training programme is a three-hour student-led workshop, developed in collaboration with Two Roads CIC; an award-winning not-for-profit social enterprise that develops and delivers training to improve emotional health and safety.
Mind Your Mate and its accompanying workshop, Mind Yourself, form part of our aim to build a community of Mental Health Champions, reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, and cut down the barriers that prevent people from accessing the help and support they need.
The overall objective of our programme is to help participants develop basic suicide prevention skills. It explains the boundaries that keep everyone safe. Our role is to help those at risk to engage with professional help, not to try and provide that help ourselves.
CW: To help someone who is at risk of suicide we need to talk about suicide risk, and so we will be talking unemotionally about suicide risk throughout the programme. If at any time you find this distressing, you may withdraw from the programme and are always welcome to complete it another time.
The training programme is structured as follows:
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Section 1
Myths and Facts around Suicide
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Section 2
Emotional Resilience and Depression
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What is resilience, and why is it so important.
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Protective and risk factors.
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Clinical depression.
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Recovery from depression – what works?
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Section 3
Depression and Suicide Risk
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What is suicide?
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The five elements of the suicidal mind.
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Why would someone consider suicide?
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How can we reduce suicide risk – World Health Organisation.
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Can we save someone?
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Why might someone not ask for help?
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Why might someone not try to help?
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Section 4
Safely helping someone using the Look, Listen, and Link model
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Look, Listen, Link model.
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Look for the signs – IS PATH WARM FOR.
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Listen and ask – active listening model.
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Link to the help that is available – crisis, serious concern, or needs help.
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Our workshops are free for all University of Glasgow students and staff to attend, either online or in-person. Upon successful completion of our Mind Your Mate and Mind Yourself workshops, you will receive a completion certificate signed-off by the University’s Chief Operating Officer, acknowledging your status as a University Mental Health Champion.
For more information, please contact workshops@src.gla.ac.uk.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is talking about suicide dangerous?
Research indicates strongly that people become suicidal because of unbearable pain – it is not the word suicide. Evidence is clear that allowing someone to talk about their suicidal thoughts is likely to reduce the immediate risk.
What is the difference between suicide prevention and suicide intervention?
Suicide intervention is necessary when someone is intending to hurt themselves. Suicide prevention happens earlier; helping to link someone to professional support can stop someone becoming suicidal.
Will I be asked to introduce myself and why I am attending?
No. Nobody is asked who they are or why they are attending the programme. Participants can observe and listen, or they can participate more actively in the exercises; it is totally up to the participant.
Is the programme upsetting?
The programme content is factual and delivered in a calm manner. Personal disclosure is avoided wherever possible. Very occasionally a participant may become upset, due to having experienced the suicide of someone close.
Is the programme suitable for someone who has suicidal thoughts?
If you believe someone is at risk of suicide, please bring them to their doctor or hospital as soon as possible; do not leave them on their own. The programme will explain to participants how they can access help but it is not a substitute for immediate professional support.
Will I be asked any direct questions?
No, all questions are asked of the whole group and participants can answer if they wish.
Will I be asked to participate in any role-plays?
No – there are no role-plays in the training programme.
Can I save someone from suicide?
Not every suicide is preventable. However, in most cases, the risk of suicide can be reduced by linking the person with suicidal thoughts to the professional help they need. That is our role and the core of our training – identifying that someone is at risk, letting them talk and linking them to the help they need.