ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training)

ASIST has five learning sections:

Prepare participants for the workshops by being able to:

• Understand the focus of the workshop is suicide intervention and the need for all caregivers to be able to do suicide first aid
• Understand the goals and objectives of the workshop
• Be aware of each other's experiences with suicide

Sensitise participants to their own attitudes towards suicide by being able to:

• Talk more openly about attitudes towards suicide first aid
• Recognise how feelings about and personal experiences with suicide might affect suicide intervention
• Identify beliefs that might make it difficult or assist them to be direct and comfortable in suicide situation

Prepare participants to use the Suicide Intervention Model (SIM) by understanding how the SIM meets the needs of a person at risk by being able to:

• Recognise SIM as a tool for meeting the needs to the person at risk outlined below
• Have their direct and indirect invitations for help recognised and explored
• Be given permission to talk about suicide by being asked directly about suicide
• Be allowed to talk about their reasons for dying and living by someone who is really listening
• Participate in a review of their risk of suicide and developing a plan to address every identified risk
• Have this plan followed up to ensure it was implemented as agreed
• Understand the six caregiver tasks of SIM and explain how they address the concerns of a person at risk
• Understand how to use the risk review and safe plan guide.

Help participants to feel more ready, willing and able to assist a person at risk of suicide by being able to:

• Recognise SIM as a tool that helps combine attitudes, knowledge and intervention skills in order to provide suicide intervention
• Understand SIM
• Use SIM to help a person at risk
• Develop their skills through observation and supervised practice experiences in large and small groups.

• Identify existing agency/community resources
• Be optimistic about the possibility of building resource networks for people at risk of suicide
• Understand the value of personal resource networks and self care for caregivers