Some thing silly?

Suicide accounts for 1% of all adult deaths, three quarters of these are men. Suicide is a serious public health problem.

One day I was driving home form a long day at work it had been a very noisy 13-hour shift. I pulled into a layby to have 5 minutes peace before I returned to a home full of noisy children.

Within a few minutes a police car pulled up behind me. An officer walked over. After a little small talk he looked at me in a serious way and asked, “you’re not thinking of doing anything silly are you?” No I said wondering what the heck he meant. (Juggling fruit or doing an impression of Tommy Cooper perhaps.) It wasn’t until I was nearly home that it dawned on me what he was asking. He was concerned that I was contemplating suicide.

Later on in my career I found out why Police are worried about men alone in cars in quiet laybys. On more than one occasion I found my self attending the scene of a suicide with the police and collecting a lifeless body form a single parked car.

If you are worried about someone contemplating suicide it is best to come right out and ask directly. Eg “Bob I’m worried about you are you thinking about suicide?”

It leaves no doubt, if Bob is he will probably be relived you noticed and asked. If he wasn’t he will probably just laugh. No harm done.

On the mental health first aid course you will learn which people are most at risk of suicide, what the risk factors are and how to predict the likely hood that some one will attempt suicide. You’ll even know how to help them.