ASIST: Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (two day workshop)

What is ASIST?

ASIST stands for Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training; it is considered to be the world's leading suicide intervention training program.

Trusted by professionals yet learnable by anyone, this two-day workshop from LivingWorks has been empowering people to have skilled, confident life-saving conversations since 1983 (over 40 years!) and is updated continually to reflect new knowledge.

What you can expect

An ASIST workshop lasts two full consecutive days and attendance is required throughout.

It is a challenging and rewarding session (often also described as 'intense' and 'powerful') which discusses suicide in some depth and includes direct teaching, discussion and skills practice. Participants are encouraged to participate as fully as they feel able, to take advantage of this unique learning opportunity.

What you will learn

You'll learn how to prevent suicide by recognising signs, providing a skilled intervention, and developing a safety plan to keep someone alive. This workshop is an ideal follow-on from MHFA. Over two days, you'll be offered safe and supported opportunities to:

• safely explore your personal and professional experiences with suicide
• examine your own beliefs and attitudes around suicide
• consider how our experiences impact our beliefs and attitudes about using suicide first aid
• better understand the needs of a person thinking about suicide - and how to use suicide first aid to meet those needs
• learn and practice a model of suicide intervention called PAL: the Pathway for Assisting Life

Creating a safe space

Suicide can be a difficult subject to talk about, and most people have been affected by suicide in some way. You are not alone if you are feeling apprehensive about attending the workshop.

Rest assured that your experiences and prior learning will be acknowledged and respected. Both your trainers will be skilled at holding any discomfort, recognising when more support is needed and finding the delicate balance between safety and challenge. You will be in very safe hands.

How you could prepare

If you choose to take part in this training, your trainers recommend that you:

• Clear your diary for the evenings before, during and after the workshop, as much as possible, to look after yourself.
• Nominate in your mind someone you could talk to afterwards, if you need to. This might be someone at work or in your personal life. Your trainers will suggest other support too.
• If you have questions or concerns before the session, email hello@starttheconversation.uk and we'll arrange a call with one of your facilitators.

About your facilitators

Rose Rowkins is a sun-worshipping mum, keen yogi, weight-lifter and singer, ex-Samaritan and ex-counsellor. She has been a suicide prevention trainer since 2015. Alongside being an ASIST master trainer, she co-created Talking about Suicide: 10 Tools (TAS10) now delivered to medical students across the UK as part of their curriculum. She was Brighton project lead for the Baton of Hope tour 2023. Connect on LinkedIn.

Louise Bloomfield - bio coming soon. Connect on LinkedIn.