Mourant funds Guernsey Mind's Suicide First Aid Lite training
At the close of last year, Mourant provided funding to enable mental health charity Guernsey Mind to deliver its Suicide First Aid Lite training for the third sector for free, by sponsoring 20 delegate places on the valuable initiative.
There was a strong turnout, with representatives from 14 different Guernsey organisations attending. More recently, Mourant also arranged a number of internal Suicide First Aid Lite training sessions for members of the Mourant Guernsey office.
The half-day Suicide First Aid Lite training programme teaches the theory and practice of suicide intervention skills that can be applied in any professional or personal setting. The aim of the training is to provide participants with learning outcomes that are factual and knowledge based.
The sessions are delivered by Guernsey Mind's experienced suicide prevention trainers, and equip participants with the knowledge and tools to understand that suicide is one of the most preventable deaths. Attendees are taught the basic skills which can help someone contemplating suicide stay safe from their thoughts, and ultimately stay alive.
In August 2023, Guernsey's Public Health intelligence team officially reported that there has been an increase in the rate of suicides or deaths via injury through undetermined intent in recent years. The report, which examined causes of death in Guernsey between 2019 and 2021, revealed that the suicide rate on the island have risen by nearly double, from seven per 100,000 between 2013 to 2015, to 15 per 100,000 between 2019 and 2021.
It is an issue that the Guernsey government is seeking to address, with the Bailiwick of Guernsey Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023-2029 pledging to identify any gaps in its mental health service offerings. Regarding its approach to suicide prevention, the strategy report states:
"Continuing efforts to reduce stigma, raise awareness and proactively improve access and quality of services are key to lowering the number of suicides locally. This Strategy will follow the 'Comprehensive approach to suicide prevention' to reduce these numbers, incorporating the voices of those with lived experience. It will also focus on developing, with community partners, explicit support for those bereaved by suicide, including stigma reduction, as bereavement by suicide is a risk factor for suicide attempt regardless of whether the deceased was related."
An annual report was also recently published in relation to this strategy, presenting data collected for the first time regarding the mental health and wellbeing of the Guernsey population.
Commenting on Guernsey Mind's Suicide First Aid Lite training, Chris Chamberlain, Operations Manager of the charity, said:
"Most people who are considering suicide do not in fact want to end their lives – they just want the pain to stop. Through raised awareness, good communication and effective support, lives can be saved. It is really important that we train as many people as possible in our community in spotting the early signs that someone may be struggling. This is where the Suicide First Aid course really can help people stay safe and stay alive."
Alana Gillies Ridout, partner and representative of the firm's Wellbeing Network in Guernsey, added:
"I'm proud that Mourant was able to support this valuable initiative, and am extremely thankful to Chris and the team for their expert guidance and training on this sensitive but critical issue that affects so many.
"Suicide is often considered to be taboo and can be difficult to talk about openly, but it's so important for everyone to be able to learn more about self-harming behaviours and suicide, together with some initial suicide intervention skills in case we should ever need to use these with a friend, colleague, or loved one."
At Mourant, our vision is to foster an open, inclusive and supportive workplace culture where our people have open conversations about physical and mental health, wellbeing and mindful working practices. The firm has invested in accessible mental health and wellbeing related support for all.
This includes:
- Our free, confidential Employee Assistance Programme.
- Access to our firmwide team of Mental Health First Aiders.
- A 'World of Wellbeing' resource hub containing a range of materials and resources to support our employees' physical, mental, emotional, and financial wellbeing.
- A Wellbeing Network group, which is open to all colleagues to join as a safe and open space to promote wellbeing and allow people to talk openly about physical and mental health, wellbeing and mindful working practices.
