Suicide Prevention Education in Cornwall

People of Cornwall! We all know we live in the most beautiful place but despite that, suicide rates here are some of the highest in the country. We really need to get better at talking about it! In my jobs in addiction and homeless services I’ve done lots of mental health and suicide awareness training but I know that in many workplaces this isn’t offered. So, working with @grassrootssp, we are going to be raising money to fund training for people in Cornwall. Grassroots offer a range of training and will be putting on their ‘Real Talk’ course which is a 3 hour long, online workshop run by their qualified trainers, focusing on enabling everyone to talk more openly and honestly about suicide and have better insight into what to do if someone tells you that they’re having suicidal thoughts. We need to raise around £1600 but the more we raise the more courses we can fund. From 2016-2019 there were an average of 71 suicides a year in Cornwall, so for our first bit of fundraising me and @katiebennallick will be walking 71 miles of the @southwestcoastpath over 3 days (and sleeping wherever we can pitch a tent. I am the worst at putting up a tent so that could be a challenge in itself). Date TBC but will be sometime in later August/September. If you’re able to donate it would be amazing, or if you have any ideas for more fundraising! And if you’re in Cornwall and interested in signing up for the @grassrootssp course please send me or Katie a message and we will start a list. The more people in Cornwall who are confident about talking about suicide, the more likely we are to see those rates decrease. As it’s online it can be done from anywhere and you could convince your boss it’s an important bit of training for any workplace so you can do it in work time without having to take time off unpaid. Let’s get talking