The theme for this event is Suicide Prevention: Working Together and will focus on partnerships and collaboration in the field of suicide prevention in order to best benefit our communities through a population-based approach.

This conference, hosted by the team at the National Centre for Suicide Prevention, Education and Training (NCSPET), developers of Suicide First Aid® (SFA), will comprise of two key speaker sessions and will give attendees the opportunity to choose two out of four additional workshops on Suicide Prevention themes such as Gambling, Schools, Financial/Business and Mental Health to attend.

Key Speaker 1: Jonny Benjamin and Neil Laybourn

Neil Laybourn and Jonny Benjamin MBE bring powerful, effective discussions around both their fascinating personal story and ongoing work within mental health and suicide awareness. The pair have been invited to deliver talks and seminars to hundreds of well-known brands and organisations worldwide, including companies, universities, and schools in addition to numerous international tv and media appearances on the topics of suicide prevention and promoting mental health awareness.

Jonny Benjamin MBE and Neil Laybourn will share their inspirational story, Stranger on the bridge, which shares the same name as the acclaimed Channel 4 production, documenting Jonny’s journey with his own mental health and suicide attempt in 2008 and how a timely intervention by Neil on that day would inspire Jonny years later to painstakingly search for Neil and reunite the two strangers.That sliding doors moment led both men onto an unfathomable, nearly decade long journey which includes both men creating a UK national charity, a ground-breaking global workplace conference series, campaigning alongside British Royalty and both finding incredible purpose in sharing their collective experience.

The pair will discuss both meeting in 2008, their lives since being reunited in 2014 thanks to Jonny’s globally reaching search and how becoming both close friends and working together to breakdown stigma around discussing mental health and suicide has impacted both men in very different ways. To learn more about their work please visit www.neillaybourn.com, www.jonnybenjamin.co.uk or https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-stranger-on-the-bridge

Key Speaker 2 : Dr Frank Campbell

Dr. Campbell is the Executive Director Emeritus of the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center, where he serves as Volunteer Co-Chair of the National Suicidology Training Center (NSTC) he founded in 2018. Dr. Campbell also serves as a volunteer Assistant Coroner in East Baton Rouge Parish. In addition to his volunteer activities he is the Senior Consultant for Campbell and Associates Consulting where he consults with communities on Active Postvention efforts and Forensic Suicidology cases. During his more than thirty years of working with those bereaved by suicide he introduced his Active Postvention Model (APM) in 1997 it is most commonly known as the LOSS Team (Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors).

His work with survivors and victims of trauma has been featured in three discovery channel documentaries, professional journals and book chapters. He is a past-president of the American Association of Suicidology, a recipient of both national and international awards for his contributions to the field of Suicidology. Dr. Campbell is also an Army veteran and is most proud to have been a consultant and contributor to the TAPS program for military family members who attend the survivor seminars and National programs for over a decade. To learn more about his work in the field of Suicidology you can visit his website www.lossteam.com or the NSTC at www.BRCIC.org

NCSPET Virtual Conference 2023 - Suicide Prevention: Working Together