Adult mental health : psychological therapies and interventions

Welcome to this suite of learning modules on A Psychological Approach to Understanding and Preventing Suicide.  The aim of these modules is to get to the heart of this most tragic of human outcomes, challenging myths and misunderstandings about suicide by bringing together people’s stories with the research evidence.

It is hoped that the modules will provide learners with the knowledge and resources to empower and enable them to respond compassionately to people who are suicidal.  The modules aim to improve the understanding of the complex set of factors that lead to suicide, to provide a framework to make sense of suicide and an overview of the evidence of what works to prevent suicide. Throughout the modules, the importance of viewing suicide as a psychological phenomenon but driven by a diverse range of factors will be highlighted.

Each organisation will have different procedures and training in place to support its staff who are working with those who are suicidal, and the situations that arise may vary depending on your organisation and role.

These modules are an adjunct to any other related training that you may have received with regard to responding to people experiencing distress. This may have been in-house mental health and wellbeing awareness training, or training which addresses suicide and self-harm.

NES Mental Health Improvement and Prevention of Self-harm and Suicide team, working in partnership with Public Health Scotland, have produced educational resources to support staff across the public sector and beyond: Mental Health Improvement and Prevention of Self-Harm and Suicide (scot.nhs.uk)

For example:

• safeTALK: half day session that teaches practical steps to provide immediate help to someone having thoughts of suicide – Tell, Ask, Listen and Keep-safe.
• Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST): a two day interactive workshop in suicide first aid that helps trainees recognise when someone may have thoughts of suicide and work with them to create a plan that will support their safety.
• Mental Health First Aid (MHFA): programme of simple steps that can be used to help a person in distress.
• NES Mental Health Improvement and Prevention of Self-Harm and Suicide - NES have developed animated videos (Ask, Tell) and learning bytes that will help to open up a conversation about suicide and help those in distress.

It may be useful to reflect on how this suite of modules is likely to fit within the current practice, training and procedures within your own organisation. This includes any procedures to escalate a situation when you are concerned about an individual’s safety.

These modules aim to equip learners with additional resources and skills to support those who are experiencing suicidal thoughts, engaging in suicidal behaviour or who are bereaved by suicide. They are designed to challenge your thinking around suicide risk and to provide a framework to understand suicide risk. Effective suicide prevention begins with understanding.

Even if your role does not involve working directly with someone who is suicidal, within your organisation and as part of your role there may be particular contexts and situations where an individual discloses having thoughts of suicide. These situations may vary depending on your organisation and your role. For example, you may talk to people over the phone, and others may see individuals face-to-face. These differences can be important to consider, particularly when thinking about how these modules and learning can benefit you in your role. 

Take a moment to think about your current role and how or why an individual may present in distress and disclose suicidal thoughts. Consider how you would feel if you were more confident and knew more about how to respond to that individual more effectively. These are the benefits that we hope you can gain from these learning modules. 

It is important to acknowledge that each learner will have their own experience of suicide, either directly or indirectly. They may have experienced suicidal thoughts themselves or someone they know may have been suicidal or died by suicide. Therefore, these modules provides information on how to care for ourselves too; as well as link to the NES Wellbeing Planning Tool and mental health support options which are provided at the start of each module. In Module 4 we go into more detail on self-care. Knowledge and skills in taking care of your own mental health are another benefit we hope you can gain from engaging with this resource.

You may wish to consider this module in relation to:

• Mental health improvement and suicide prevention framework: Scotland’s Knowledge and Skills Framework for Mental Health Improvement
• Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention
• National Institute of Health and Care Excellence guidelines on self-harm
• NHS Education England’s Suicide and Self-harm competency framework

The examples and people’s stories presented in these modules are applicable across a wide range of situations and roles. During the modules we recommend you reflect on how the information and scenarios included could be applicable to your own role. 

•  Awareness of who is at risk of suicide and why
• An overview of the complex set of factors that lead to suicide
• How to ask people about suicide
• Safety planning
• The importance of self-care

1. Will have an understanding of suicide risk.
2. Will have an understanding about the myths surrounding suicide.
3. Will have an understanding of the key psychological risk factors surrounding suicide.
4. Will have an understanding of protective factors surrounding suicide
5. Will have knowledge of the Integrated Motivational-Volitional Model of Suicidal Behaviour 
6. Will have an understanding that the factors leading to suicidal thoughts are different from those associated with suicidal acts.
7. Will have knowledge of the evidence for which psychological interventions are effective in reducing suicidal behaviour. 
8. Will understand the steps involved in safety planning.

This training consists of 4 modules and will take approximately 2 hours in total to complete. Each section includes information about suicide risk together and the opportunity to reflect on the material. There are also additional links, resources and video clips embedded throughout. The sections are:

• Module 1. An overview of suicide
• Module 2. Psychological risk and protective factors
• Module 3. The IMV model of suicidal behaviour
• Module 4. What works to prevent suicidal behaviour?

At the end of the modules there is a short 10 question assessment to test your knowledge on the Psychological Approach to Understanding and Preventing suicide. Please complete it once you have finished the training. 

Please ensure you have registered on TURAS and your account details are up to date. Click on the links below to access the e-learning modules.