safeTALK Suicide Awareness Training

Aims and target audience

safeTALK is a half-day training in suicide alertness. It helps participants recognize a person with thoughts of suicide and connect them with resources who can help them in choosing to live.

Participants don’t need any formal preparation to attend the training. safeTALK is designed for anyone age 15 or older, including many in more formal helping roles. The steps learned in safeTALK have helped participants from all walks of life be alert to situations where suicide thoughts may be present.

• safeTALK is delivered in 11 countries
• 3100+ safeTALK Trainers worldwide
• 490,000+ safeTALK participants trained since 2006

safeTALK is consistent with LivingWorks’ view that the training needs of a suicide-safer community require a
comprehensive approach. safeTALK participants have an important role to play in helping to achieve this goal.

safeTALK training focuses on using the TALK steps— Tell, Ask, Listen, KeepSafe—to engage persons with thoughts of suicide and help to connect them with life affirming resources.

In effect, safeTALK-trained helpers work together with individuals to help them keep safe from suicide.

Learning outcomes

safeTALK helps participants become alert to suicide.

Suicide-alert people are better prepared to connect persons with thoughts of suicide with life-affirming help.

Over the course of their training, safeTALK participants will learn to:

• Notice and respond to situations where suicide thoughts may be present
• Recognize that invitations for help are often overlooked
• Move beyond the common tendency to miss, dismiss, and avoid suicide
• Apply the TALK steps: Tell, Ask, Listen, KeepSafe
• Know community resources and how to connect someone with thoughts of suicide to them for further suicide-safer help.

In safeTALK you will learn how to reach out to someone thinking about suicide and help them keep safe by promptly connecting them to further support. Your role as a ‘connector’ is the main focus of this training, which features:

• Trainer presentations, facilitated discussion, and skills practice
• Videos that illustrate what happens when signs of suicide are overlooked, and how you can contribute to safe outcomes when these signs are heard and addressed
• Opportunities to further explore organisational applications of the training

Delivery methods and styles

safeTALK features both presentations and interactive elements.

Trainers will facilitate participants’ involvement through:

• Trainer presentations
• Diverse selection of audio visuals
• Interactive discussion and questions
• TALK steps practice
• TALK wallet card
• “You can TALK to Me” stickers

Knowledge and skills required of the trainers

safeTALK is a training developed by LivingWorks Education, a leading world provider of suicide intervention training. Each safeTALK is facilitated by an experienced member of the Advance Brighter Futures team who has completed the safeTALK Training for Trainers (T4T) course. Trainers use internationally standardized learning materials, including a diverse selection of paired alert and non alert vignettes.

Involvement of people with lived experience

safeTALK is the world’s fastest-growing suicide prevention skills training course and has the most robust evidence base in the suicide prevention training field.

Advance Brighter Futures is a North Wales based charity, established in 1992 and supporting hundreds of people every year with their mental health and have trained over 170 people in mental health & suicide awareness in just the last 3 years alone.

ABF help people in crisis on a daily basis, and deliver a wide range of services supporting people in the local community with their mental health – from low level to severe and enduring mental illness.

Assessment, CPD credits, certification

Each participant will receive a certificate upon completion.