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THE SUICIDE PREVENTION charity Console is holding a special training programme to help employers and colleagues recognise the warning signs of a suicide crisis and learn the skills that could help save a co-workers life.
The programme also aims to help employers and colleagues cope with the aftermath of a death by suicide in the workplace.
Suicide
Console’s Director of Services Ciaran Austin said:
The tragic and shattering reality of suicide can have a profound effect on the workplace as it is a community where people spend up to half their waking hours and often form important relationships.
He siad Console’s training programme aims to help employers respond in a compassionate and informed way when a workplace is affected by suicide.
Austin said there is often a sense of fear or trepidation around this issue in people’s places of work that prevents people from looking for help, or helping others who may be bereaved by suicide.
Breaking the silence
“It takes courage to break that silence and speak about suicide in our workplaces but saying nothing is not an option. That only reinforce those fears and anxieties and adds to the stress of those affected,” he said.
As well as prevention, the training programme looks at how employers can deal effectively with situations involving the death of an employee and also how to help a staff member who has been affected by the suicide of someone close to them.
The programme is aimed at employers, human resource managers and other professionals who want to be able to respond appropriately to a death by suicide in the workplace, said Austin.
How to handle a crisis
He added:
Research suggests that when employers handle these crises well there is a positive impact on on staff in terms of their reaction to the loss and the long term effect it has on them.
The one day training course, hosted in Dublin by the National Suicide Prevention and Bereavement charity Console, will take place on on Friday, 15 November at the Marino Institute of Education in Griffith Avenue. The fee is €75 per person.
All participants will receive an attendance certificate.
Booking forms are available on www.console.ie or by ringing Console’s head office on 01 610 2638.
Console offers counselling services and 24-hour helpline support to people in crisis and those bereaved by suicide. You can call: Freephone 1800 201 890.
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The government should pay for this coarse out of their massive wages to help the people they are abousing with their policies
Any chance of training up the bank managers as well.
The following is not a some kid of sick joke.
A person in deep mortgage distress from our area went into one of the “pillar banks” recently to discuss her mortgage.
During the conversation,
the senior bank official said this mortgage is “like a noose around your neck” on numerous occasions.
Is this course for the benefit of employees or employers? It might appeal to some people to be the mental health police and simultaneously get an ego-boost from “hey, I saved a life today”. Not to mention the handy hints on how to get your team back to full productivity if an unfortunate incident does take place.
Employers are already tasked with ensuring that employees are respected in the workplace and can get on with their jobs with dignity. We know that many fail in this regard. We also know that taking an interest in people’s life outside work and being prepared to make allowances when some-one is under stress, is part of being human.
A course of how eradicate workplace bullying, reduce employee stress and foster workplace relationships sound like a good idea but isn’t very headline-grabbing. Personally I find the idea of my employer watching my colleagues and me, weighing up our chances of suicide and stepping in only when they feel – in their entirely unqualified opinion -that lives are at stake, creepy.
you’re right Jone. strange, all thumbs down, they must condone bullying in work but its not ok for children to do it online, which is been widely broadcast these days. its almost like yea join the crowd and feel safe you’re not alone in supporting to stamp it out. never surprises me.
what you talk about there is huge, goes on in many places espeically now was ‘they need to push production’ the balance out the profits. produce what? less are buying, so pack it in and perhaps work for other ‘ethically sound’ employers? they might treat you right and teach you how to run a business with manners.
i won’t say most, i’ll try to remain hopeful it does exist but most of the places i worked, they couldn’t give a **** about this article and only want to know ‘when will it be ready?’ ‘i wanted that yesterday’ spoken over your shoulder when you least expect it, an intimidating tactic, while behind you the workplace bully is doing their bit. Ha i had one where i worked, one day they were out, had to work off their computer, their browser history for the day before was all based around searching for help on ‘self esteem’. I felt well, ok, at least they’re trying to help themselves but it proved one thing, that there was a bully inside. It is one of the most common traits of a bully, that and denial. Monsters in the work place, halloween every day.
Another day on the journal suicide abortion and misery …. Any good new folks we will all be depressed by association if we leave it to the journal
Angela, when you awoke this morning it was the beginning of another day when YOU can make the difference. Firstly the good news for yourself is that you are able to communicate , to think , to love,to change whatever is in your power to change. You can make someone happy today if you wish. Even a simple smile might help.
You make the good news happen by being a decent human being. It costs nothing.
I am a decent human being who just happens to think that all this negative news only adds misery to those who are not in the best of form John …
Suicide is what people are thinking about and hopefully talking about Angela that is why it is news as it has to be addressed. Maybe some of those not in the best of form will be grateful that there is some talk about this terrible problem today and see hope in it?
Too much nanny crap. I suppose one day others actions will all be our fault? I just would not go to a course like that. A person decides to commit suicide. Who am I to stop them? Why is it my business?
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