What is ASIST?
ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) can teach anyone to have the courage and the confidence to recognise a person with suicidal thoughts and intentions and to intervene....
This is the first stage of helping someone who is suicidal and probably the most important one because ...if you don't recognise and are not confident that you can intervene.... then that person may well die.
ASIST teaches ordinary people a prescribed model to follow when they might identify a person who is feeling suicidal and this model looks after the "caregiver" as well as the person at risk. The "caregiver" only provides "first aid" in order to preserve life in an emergency situation.
ASIST has been specifically designed (and refined) as a learning programme that will equip ordinary people without any previous specialist mental health training or experience in working with people in emotional distress, to feel confident that they can intervene and possibly prevent a suicide that might otherwise happen.
Learning the ASIST model does take two whole days of your time but gives you skills that you will have for a lifetime. It may help you to help someone else to even have a lifetime...and that will be your reward. If you can help just one person to continue to live their life, it will be worth your two days.
ASIST is a two-day intensive, interactive suicide intervention skills-training workshop that has now been imported into the UK, from Canada. Fifteen experienced local trainers underwent the first five day "T4T" training in June 2004, to then be able to deliver an ASIST anywhere in England and Wales (ASIST is also being systematically "rolled out" across Scotland, N. Ireland & Eire as the preferred suicide intervention model). The T4T was repeated in 2005.
Our trainers are now ready, willing and able to deliver ASIST in our own communities. Three trainers provide workshops for groups of 15 to 24 participants. The cost of a workshop for 15 participants is "2000.00 (plus trainer expenses) and for 24 participants the cost is "2750.00 (plus trainer expenses).
If you would like to evaluate ASIST, before sponsoring a full workshop in your area, you are welcome to apply for the "taster" rate of "50.00 on one of our scheduled workshops in East Sussex.
Organisations, who are unable to release all of their staff at once, can instead sponsor their workers and volunteers and book places on any course. However, we advise that you book and pay for these places asap, to be sure of getting all the dates you want. We can also arrange overnight accommodation for you.
Free places on our reserve list are available to unfunded groups in East Sussex.
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