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Youth suicide prevention: Top tips for schools

In a recent webinar, The C.A.R.E. Kit: Suicide prevention advice from CALM, we were joined by psychotherapist, Wendy Robinson, Director of Services at CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) to talk about the important topic of suicide prevention. Wendy introduced the C.A.R.E kit, a free resource which can inform you on how to take action as a trusted adult to protect young people from suicide.

We were also joined by Kristan O’Flynn, Deputy Head of Sixth Form and BrainWaves Lead at The Cooper School, who shared her insights and experience on the topic and inspired us to come up with these top tips for trusted adults in schools and colleges.

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1. Be visible

Being consistently present and reiterating that trusted adults are there to help is key to ensuring students know and understand ways in which they can access support.

Kristan shared  a powerful example of this from The Cooper School. Following a weekend where there were two suicide-related instances directly and indirectly involving students, staff had an opportunity to stand united in front of the students in an assembly, acknowledge the incidents and share these key messages with their students: 

  • “You do not have to deal with anything that’s affecting you alone”
  • “We are here to support you”
  • “You are all worthwhile”
  • “Your voices will be heard”

Taking the opportunity to simply be visible and present for the students led to an influx in students referring themselves to the school counsellor and the school nurse.

Wendy shared a helpful resource from PAPYRUS which recommends that schools and colleges have a suicide prevention policy statement which is known and visible to the whole school community. It provides a model policy statement and reference points which schools and colleges could use to review their existing document.

2. Don’t be afraid of the S-word: suicide.

Talking about suicide can feel uncomfortable and many people worry that they don’t have the appropriate skills and training to support someone dealing with suicidal thoughts or that talking about it might put ideas into a young person’s mind. 

Wendy suggested that the only type of thing we shouldn’t say when talking to someone about suicidal thoughts is “You’re not thinking of hurting yourself, are you?” or “You’re not thinking of doing something silly, are you?” These types of phrases push the message that the struggling person should respond, “No,” which isn’t conducive to opening up a conversation with someone who actually might be dealing with these thoughts.

Stigma promotes silence. It is important to know that lots of people struggle: suicidal thoughts happen to 1 in 5 of us. Talking about it with appropriate language and normalising conversations around the topic might help reinforce that anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts can reach out for help without fear of the stigma often associated with it. 

3. Be informed.

You can help equip yourself by seeking out empowering information about suicide and suicide prevention such as that found in the C.A.R.E kit. The kit is full of information which can support you in approaching young people about their mental health, from prevention to crisis and at each point in between. 

For example, during the webinar, Wendy shared a list of different words that young people might use to refer to suicide without using the word suicide, kill or other clearer terms. A particularly common term at the moment is “unalive” (the remainder of the shared list can be found at 45m 25s). These more obscure terms are used to avoid censorship, particularly online where using words such as suicide and kill could result in a post or comment automatically being deleted. Additionally, they are used to create a sense of solidarity between groups of people who can decode them. It is useful to familiarise yourself with these words and could be words you suggest to be monitored by IT teams at your school.

Another way you can be informed is by getting to know the young people you see on a regular basis. Look out for signs that someone might need help such as changes in behaviour, physical indicators and the words they use or emotions they display. Almost anything could be an indicator that someone is struggling. When we get to know young people, it will be easier to identify when something seems off and trust your intuition in exploring what might be going on. 

4. Ask for help

Anyone working in education should be well aware of safeguarding policies and how to report anything of concern to safeguarding leaders at school. Kristan suggested a way to phrase this need for adults to get additional support when dealing with these types of situations by saying, “We both might need support, I might have to pass this on because I might not be the best person to help you.” This can help the young person to know that you are on their team and care about them.

Wendy suggested that it is the job of trusted adults to advocate for the young person, not to fix the problem. Best practice is to seek expert help to support the young person through an immediate crisis situation and beyond. Build a support network around the young person and also for yourself and don’t give up hope. The C.A.R.E kit includes a list of expert support services. BrainWaves lessons also include a list of places to get help at the end of each of our lessons. 

This support network you help create will be key to starting the young person on a positive path.

Want to find out more?

We hope you found these top tips useful, you can find more in our C.A.R.E kit webinar. If you are interested in finding out more about CALM’s vision and mission, please visit their website www.thecalmzone.net.

About the author

Abbie Simpkin is a School Research Liaison Manager at BrainWaves, responsible for supporting schools on the BrainWaves Research Programme.  She was previously a music teacher at Key Stage 3-5.