Using Lived Experience in Suicide Prevention Work (Free Online Workshop)

Hello community members,

We've received some funding to provide a workshop for community members to share their experience and wisdom of lived experience work in the area of suicide prevention*. 

***This event is only open to community members and is free to attend.***

The workshop will provide a space for folks who use their lived experience in suicide prevention work to share their knowledge and expertise and to learn and reflect on the knowledge and expertise of others. We hope that this will offer a chance to:

- be part of a session that intends to hold conversations about suicide, with colleagues working in your field

- pick up some good hints and tips on how to use experiences related to suicide

- avoid common pitfalls

- share learning about good practice and what works

- feel more confident about tricky situations

- create connections with other lived experience workers

- observe how Peer Hub facilitates the workshop and discuss our approach as part of the learning process.

We'll do some group exercises from Peer Hub's 'Using Your Lived Experience at Work' training package to get started, and facilitate opportunities for small groups to talk about their own experiences and learn from each other.

All attendees will receive a shiny Peer Hub CPD certificate :)

Content of the workshop

We will be facilitating exercises and discussions that will enable people to talk about experiences related to suicide and suicide prevention work. No attendee will be expected or encouraged to talk about these experiences. We will be supporting these conversations to take place if they arise, and facilitating this in a way that feels right for the group who attend. This will be so that we can reflect on how we use these experiences in the workplace and their impact on us as lived experience workers. 

If you have any concerns about discussions about suicide, it is perfectly OK not to attend - whether this is something that comes up prior to the workshop or on the day. 

We hope to offer a workshop that community members find useful and helps us feel connected to each other and our work. We welcome any feedback!

*Definitions that might be helpful:

"Workers" includes paid workers, volunteers, activists, artists or any other form of 'labour'. 

"Suicide Prevention" means any work/labour that is intended to enable people in mental distress to survive crises or other situations where they are thinking about taking their own lives. This can include direct support to people in crisis, or research in the field of suicide, training or facilitation, or art or activism designed to generate action or conversation related to suicide prevention. This is not an exhaustive list.

"Lived Experience" in this training we are specifically looking to attract attendees who draw from their own experiences of thinking about or acting on thoughts about taking their own lives in their work/labour.