Page 15 - the SyI Quarterly 15

The course took place on Monday, June 26. Andrew ran the
course exceptionally, and its learnings will be carried forward.
I would recommend this to any supervisors or managers.

The course comprised of:
• Module 1 – A healthy company
• Module 2 – Health risk management
• Module 3 – Fitness for Work
• Module 4 – Wellbeing
(PCR Global, IOSH Managing Health and Wellbeing)

June 7th saw me have a Zoom conversation with Fiona
Aldred, Chief Executive National Centre for Suicide Prevention
Education and Training and on the back of this conversation,
which was wide-reaching and very informative from both
sides, I decided to book and will attend (Thursday, July 27)
one of their courses, ‘Suicide First Aid: Understanding Suicide
Intervention.’

The reason behind doing so is this, and this is a question
to ponder in our industry, especially those in the frontline,
public-facing roles; “Training people in ordinary first aid and
perhaps even administering CPR is a recognised everyday
need – we take it for granted. However, statistically, we are
more likely to encounter someone with thoughts of suicide
than someone having a heart attack.” (National Centre for
Suicide Prevention Education and Training). At the time of
writing, I can, of course, not pre-judge anything, but this is a
course I am sure will be very informative.

June saw ‘Men’s Mental Health Month’ and The Consortium
for the Prevention of Suicide partnering with the University
of Westminster and Canterbury Christ Church University with
delivering a free education seminar for their members. The
event took place at Westminster University June 28th and
Featured an incredible and informative interactive workshop
from two top academics in suicidology, Dr. Jay-Marie
Mackenzie and Dr. Ian Marsh. Areas covered included; The
scale of suicides and how this impacts society. How to identify
someone in distress and how to respond. Myths and stigma
around suicide. Overall, it was a very informative day, and I
was glad to have been able to attend – despite having done a
12-hour night shift beforehand.

I think we can all agree that mental health in the security
sector is as important as ever, and it is encouraging to not
only see that change is being made, and that mental health
recognition in the security sector is improving, but it has also
been personally rewarding for me to be able to contribute to
that as a frontline officer, and to use my personal experiences
to hopefully benefit this significant movement going forward.

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