Using technology to save lives from suicide
: New online training course gives everyday Australians a starting point for suicide safe conversations
National Suicide Prevention Conference, Melbourne: This week, the leading international provider of suicide prevention training LivingWorks, will introduce its world first online training course to hundreds of Australian suicide prevention experts and community advocates as they gather in Melbourne for the National Suicide Prevention Conference. LivingWorks Start is a new skills-based suicide prevention program accessible to every Australian.
LivingWorks Australia Director, Shayne Connell, said with his background in Psychology and 20 years' experience in suicide prevention and training, he hasn't seen anything like this before and welcomes the new program: "The future of suicide prevention training is here with LivingWorks Start, our first online program. Learnable in as little as one hour from any computer or mobile device, LivingWorks Start empowers everyone to play a role in saving lives from suicide."
Alice Spring based trainer, Karen Reval, works with schools and is excited to see the online program available, "From the very first click I was hooked on this program as another great way to get hopeful, lifesaving messages out there. The interactive components of LivingWorks Start are very cleverly inserted. I can see so many ways of integrating this program into the suite of LivingWorks programs that we already deliver in school settings with staff and senior students and can't wait to start using it."
For Sharon Jenkins, who lost her husband, paramedic Tony, to suicide last year, LivingWorks Start is a practical way she has found to channel her grief into positive action, "I don't want other families, workplaces and communities to go through the immense loss we have. If every single person in this country did LivingWorks Start, so many of us will be better equipped to have those tough conversations. I for one will be making it my life's work to support paramedics to learn these invaluable skills. Not only could it help them save lives in the work they do but it could also save the life of one of their loved ones."
More than 2 million people have been trained to intervene through programs such as ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) and safeTALK since 1983. LivingWorks training is provided across Australia, including the safeTALK in Schools program, the Australian Defence Force suicide prevention strategy, Lifeline Australia and various Universities and community organisations. The ASIST program, lessons from which have informed development of LivingWorks Start, has more than 30 published peer-reviewed studies of the impact of our training) and is thanks to years of consistent delivery of this short course by professionally trained local peers.
