It’s the second leading cause of death among 18 to 24 year olds, and now more NC students are learning how to help those at risk of suicide.
A group of 22 second-year Recreation Therapy students became more ‘suicide alert’ after completing safeTALK training at Niagara College in early October.
The three-and-a-half hour workshop, offered by the College’s Health, Wellness and Accessibility Services, alerts participants to warning signs indicating risk of suicide. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing the signs, communicating with the person at risk, and getting help or resources for the person at risk.
Recreation Therapy professor Jackie Frail has been working with Health, Wellness and Accessibility Services to offer the workshop to students in her Effective Helping Skills course each fall for only $9 – covering the cost of materials. Over the past four years, 120 students in her classes have completed the training to earn their safeTALK certificate. Since all of her students plan to work within the human service sector, she feels it is an excellent resource for students, to prepare them for their future careers as well as for personal use.
The training helps prepare students to have a direct conversation about suicide with individuals they believe to be showing signs of thoughts of suicide, she noted. Further, it teaches them steps to help safely connect someone who they identify as having suicidal thoughts with a suicide interventionist within the community.
“The greatest benefit I perceive from the students is their increase in confidence in talking about suicide,” Frail said. “Many of them talk about feeling apprehensive and/or nervous to think about having a conversation about suicide with a client or loved one. However, after the training, they all recognize the value and importance of being open about this topic in an effort to get people the help they need.”
Recreation Therapy student Tiffany Ross, who hopes to work with individuals with mental health and addiction challenges, found the training to be beneficial to her future career, and felt fortunate that the training was structured into her program. She also found it contained practical knowledge that could be beneficial to anyone, in any profession, to help deal with family and friends or anyone who may be struggling.
“Mental health and suicide are commonly topics that people do not like to or find it uncomfortable to talk about because a lot of people don’t know what to say or how to talk about it to others,” she said. “Upon receiving this training, I learned strategies on how to handle situations and what you can say or do when you think someone may be at risk of suicide and recognizing potential warning signs.
“Although suicide is never anyone’s fault or for anyone to be held at blame, there are things we can look and listen for to guide individuals into getting help and keeping them safe.”
While it may be a natural instinct for many people to want to help and talk people down from these situations, Ross learned from safeTALK training that the best thing to do would be to connect those struggling with a person or resources that can help them overcome their intrusive thoughts and feelings.
Jay Burdon, associate director of Health, Wellness and Accessibility Services, noted that safeTALK has been offered at Niagara College since 2012. Since then, more than 400 people – staff and students alike – have become certified.
“Open and direct communication is one of the keys to preventing suicide,” said Burdon. “safeTALK provides participants with the tools and resources they need to help identify those who might be having thoughts of suicide and to connect those people at risk of suicide with others in the community who can complete the helping process by doing a suicide intervention.”
