Suicide is painless

"Suicide is painless". That's an interesting title for the MASH theme song...

 

Well it's been a while since my last bit of volunteering and a while since my last blog.

 

Last Thursday I participated in a Suicide Prevention Workshop run by LifeForce, which is part of Wesley Mission. OK that's a pretty tenuous link between MASH and the workshop but I love MASH and I figured the titles sort of match.

 

LifeForce runs these workshops all over the NSW educating community groups who work with clients whom are potentially suicidal. These participants are generally qualified in counselling who work in many areas including youth, multicultural and religious organisations. Red Cross thought it would be a good idea if someone went along to find out if it would be useful for those emergency services volunteers who are involved with talking to distressed people who may have thoughts of suicide. These volunteers would generally be working the phones during emergencies, either man-made or natural, and have to talk to people who have been affected by the emergency.

 

And why did I go along?  Well I thought it would be a good idea to see what goes on with counselling and little pointers I could pick up that I can use during my volunteering would be a bonus. It was an excellent course as I learnt a lot about suicide and the stigma it carries. I discovered that in Australia more people die from completing suicide then from homicide and road deaths combined (ABS 1997-2007), and that males are four times more likely to complete suicide compared to females. What's tragic is the government's relative inaction compared to their effort in reducing the road toll. Maybe because suicide is considered a taboo subject and hence may attract negative publicity from individuals?

 

Whilst I won't go into too much detail as I'm by no means an expert on suicide prevention/counselling but from a very basic perspective this was a great introductory course into what is a very difficult job to do.

 

Whilst it's not a direct skill for my volunteering with the Red Cross, the fact that it was offered and I completed it is a great indication of the level of training provided by Red Cross.

 

BeyondBlue info line: 1300 22 4636

Lifeline: www.lifeline.org.au 13 11 14

 

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