Essential Information for safeTALK Trainer Candidates

• Overview of safeTALK - including participant outcomes
• The role of safeTALK in a suicide-safer community
• Selection criteria - helping you decide if being a trainer is right for you
• Obligations after safeTALK Training for Trainers (T4T) - also important in deciding if being a trainer is right for you
• Overview of safeTALK Training for Trainers (T4T)
• Self selection - thinking about your decision again after all of this information
• Instructor feedback - some guidance from your instructor after T4T

Overview of safeTALK

safeTALK is a new LivingWorks’ program that trains community members to recognize persons with thoughts of suicide and connect them to suicide intervention resources. These suicide alertness skills complement the skills of suicide intervention caregivers. safeTALK is our response to a long-known need for a program that can be delivered:

• in less than a half day
• to community members with all levels of helping experience
• by one trainer with groups of up to 30 participants

Participants learn how to provide practical help to persons with thoughts of suicide in only a few hours. safeTALK prepares them to be alert helpers. An alert helper:

• is aware that opportunities to help a person with thoughts of suicide are sometimes missed, dismissed and avoided.
• wants persons with thoughts of suicide to invite them to help.
• recognizes when a person might be having thoughts of suicide.
• engages a person with thoughts in direct and open talk about suicide.
• listens to the person’s feelings about suicide to show that they recognize that the thoughts are serious.
• knows the name and contact information of local suicide intervention resources.
• moves quickly to connect the person with thoughts to someone who can do a suicide intervention.

When a helper does the TALK (Tell, Ask, Listen and KeepSafe) steps from safeTALK, they activate a suicide alert.

The role of safeTALK in a suicide-safer community

safeTALK was designed to teach skills that complement caregivers with suicide intervention skills like those learned in ASIST, LivingWorks’ two-day workshop. safeTALK-trained helpers make early recognition and referral possible on a far larger scale than any community can afford to do through suicide intervention skills training alone. When there are enough safeTALK-trained persons available, suicide intervention caregivers will be used more often.

safeTALK trainers need to identify and determine the availability of the ASIST-trained and other suicide intervention resources in their community. This information is needed to enable safeTALK participants to make a KeepSafe connection for persons with thoughts whom they recognize. When it appears that there are few resources in a community or that access to these suicide intervention caregivers is restricted, this must be highlighted within safeTALK. It is likely that communities with limited helping resources have few suicide alert helpers either, with access to a telephone help often being the only resource. In a community like this, safeTALK can still be used to train suicide alert helpers and to help make the community aware that they also need readily available suicide intervention resources.

Develop a list of resources. Talk to one of them about what you will be learning and teaching. Find out how they can help. Decide about a resource that you would use if you needed help.

Selection criteria

While safeTALK’s curriculum is sufficiently structured and detailed to guarantee high levels of participant satisfaction, the trainer’s skills and perhaps even more importantly, their attitudes are critical. The following information on selection criteria may help you to make a decision about wanting to become a safeTALK trainer.

You are far more likely to become a successful safeTALK trainer if you meet the following criteria:

• you have completed an ASIST workshop;
• you are a skilled presenter;
• you have good group facilitation skills;
• if you want to customize your presentation, you are proficient in PowerPoint*; and
• you are committed to promoting suicide safety through open and direct talk about suicide.

Most of safeTALK is a lecture presentation but a taped co-trainer, whom the trainer can use in whole or in part, can present much of that material. When using the taped co-trainer extensively, the trainer’s facilitation skills can be more fully utilized although care must be taken to make sure all of the content can be covered in three hours. When using the co-trainer sparingly or not at all, presentation skills become more important.

Because you are an ASIST caregiver or trainer, you know something about intervention. The more you know about intervention the better. Be aware that only a very limited and tightly structured subset of all intervention knowledge can be taught in safeTALK. You must understand what safeTALK can and cannot do. Learning to adapt one’s knowledge of intervention to safeTALK’s goals is one of the challenges for those who know a lot about intervention.

*The training slides are provided on a locked-in DVD with a standard set of video clips, with and without the co-trainer. It can be used on any DVD player or any computer with a DVD drive. An optional DVD-ROM with customizable trainer slides is also available. It enables you to use all, none, or select parts of the co-trainer. You can also replace the standard non-alert/alert scenes with alternatives from a growing video library. It can be used on any computer with a DVD drive and PowerPoint. It requires proficiency with your computer and in the use of PowerPoint and a data projector for trainings.

Practice doing some suicide intervention simulations with supportive persons. A safeTALK trainer needs to be willing, ready and able to intervene if necessary.

safeTALK teaches certain fundamental assumptions about suicide that safeTALK trainers need to endorse:

• While tragic in its outcome, the reasons for thoughts of suicide are understandable.
• Suicide is not a mental illness.
• Most people with thoughts of suicide want to live.
• Most people with thoughts of suicide indicate, directly or indirectly, that they want help to live.
• More people with thoughts of suicide would directly ask for help if fewer people were judgmental about or frightened of suicide.
• Open, comfortable and direct talk about suicide is the key to making more people open, comfortable and direct in dealing with suicide.
• Most people with thoughts of suicide do not injure or kill themselves and with help even fewer would.
• The best way to identify people with thoughts of suicide is to ask them directly about their thoughts.
• Asking about thoughts of suicide will not put the idea in someone’s head if they weren’t already thinking about suicide.
• Talking about thoughts of suicide with someone else will not cause you to be at risk of suicide.
• All people with thoughts of suicide should be taken seriously.

Practice saying these assumptions out loud to supportive persons as if they were participants in your safeTALK training.

Your belief in these assumptions can be severely tested in presenting safeTALK. Simply endorsing these assumptions is not enough. You need to have confidence in the wisdom of these assumptions. You also need to have confidence that the participants will recognize that wisdom. Calm, patient assuredness is crucial to the participants’ learning safeTALK’s key messages.

Obligations after safeTALK Training for Trainers (T4T)

Provisional trainer

• After completing your T4T, you are considered a provisional safeTALK trainer. (The provisional nature of your trainer status applies only internally within the LivingWorks documentation system.) New trainers need approximately two and half days of initial training plus another two days for preparation and review of their first three safeTALKs.
• You need to successfully complete three safeTALK trainings, each with minimum of ten participants—15 is the recommended minimum—within one year of your T4T to receive your safeTALK trainer certificate. If you do your training with another safeTALK trainer, each of you must have done all parts of the training at least once.

Trainer listing

• safeTALK trainers need to complete at least two safeTALK trainings every year to maintain their status. If this requirement is not met, your safeTALK trainer status will lapse in our database automatically.
• Benefits of listing: As a safeTALK trainer, your name or trainer ID number (your preference) will be listed on our website along with information about what participants can expect from a safeTALK training. You will want to tell your participants about this information to help them understand that you are part of a larger organization that is dedicated to quality control. Trainers with a history of unresolved participant complaints will be removed from the list. Trainers have access to secure web-based content where questions can be asked and answered, upcoming training dates can be submitted and completed trainings can be reported.
• Re-listing: Once you have obtained trainer status, you can request a reinstatement within six months of your lapsed status with the expectation that you will complete three safeTALK trainings within a year of any lapse of status. You will have to purchase any updated trainer materials at cost and pay a re-listing fee. Your safeTALK trainer status will be cancelled if the re-listing requirements are not met.

Materials

• You must order and use safeTALK Resource Kits for every safeTALK training. Each safeTALK participant receives a wallet card reminder of the TALK steps, two reusable stickers identifying the participant’s willingness and ability to help, a 24-page resource book and a certificate. See safeTALK Pricing for current pricing.
• Materials income: Financial returns to LivingWorks are mostly used to offset the initial and ongoing development costs of safeTALK amortized over ten years, the costs of the materials and the cost of providing trainer support. All of these costs were paid for and financed by LivingWorks. There are no subsidies, government grants or tax benefits.

Posting trainings

• Whether your safeTALK training is open and available to community members or closed and already filled, you MUST post the date of your training on LivingWorks’ website as soon as a date is set.

Reporting requirements

• You MUST submit a trainer report through LivingWorks’ website for each training. Keep the participant feedback forms and a copy of your trainer report from your last five trainings. LivingWorks may request to see them or you may need to submit them should you want to become a safeTALK instructor.

Presentation standards

• safeTALK is standardized and customizable. It MUST be presented in a manner consistent with the manual, the T4T course and approved customized materials. However, some elements of your own style can fit within that standard. You must always use current safeTALK materials. From time to time, there will be improvements to safeTALK. As a listed trainer, you will either be able to download these improvements at no cost or purchase them at cost plus shipping and handling. If there is a change to safeTALK participant materials and you still have some supplies of the older version in stock, you may use the remaining stock.
• Presentation length: safeTALK is presented in about three hours unless approved safeTALK supplementary materials are used. All trainings MUST be completed over the course of a single day.
• Participant numbers: The number of participants should not exceed 30 nor be less than ten. The preferred minimum is 15.
• Community support resource: A community support resource should be present at all of your trainings to serve as your backup resource to those who might be having thoughts of suicide or to those who might uncover unresolved grief issues.

Overview of safeTALK Training for Trainers (T4T)

There is a one-day T4T format that requires about a day and half of pre-study work. There is a two-day T4T format in which the afternoon and evening of its first day is used to cover the same work as the pre-study. Obviously, it is important to know which format you are attending. For the one-day, you have homework to do before you arrive. For the two-day, you just show up, eager to get to work.

One-Day T4T with Pre-Study

The pre-study for the one-day T4T includes:

• an opportunity to observe a video of a safeTALK being presented;
• ability to devote sufficient time (about a day and half) to investigate the design of safeTALK and to prepare to present half of safeTALK at the formal T4T.

The formal day of the one-day T4T includes:

• an annotated walk-through of safeTALK with an emphasis upon its design;
• candidate presentation of portions of the part of safeTALK they prepared.

Logistical requirements: Full candidate registration including email contact information is required four weeks prior to the T4T date. This will give you sufficient time to download materials and complete your pre-study work. You will receive instructions by email.

Two-Day T4T

The first day of the two-day format includes:

• an opportunity to observe and participate in a safeTALK;
• afternoon and evening time to investigate the design of safeTALK and to prepare to present half of safeTALK on day two.

The second day of the two-day format includes:

• an annotated walk-through of safeTALK with an emphasis upon its design;
• candidate presentation of portions of the part of safeTALK they prepared.

Logistical requirements: Full candidate registration including email contact information required one week prior to the T4T date. All trainer materials will be handed out at the formal course.

Both formats of the T4T

You can expect your T4T experience to have a similar “feel” to any other LivingWorks program you have experienced. There will be a focus on a positive learning environment, encouragement of open and honest talk, respect for differences, support of each other and active participation. You can also expect it to be hard work with an emphasis on the seriousness of suicide and the part you can play in creating a suicide-safer community.

The trainer materials you will receive at the T4T consist of:

• a DVD with the safeTALK demonstration and with two locked-in, remote-control operated version of the safeTALK presentation (with and without the co-trainer);
• tools to help you get started and assess your progress; and,
• access to secure web-based trainer support and resources.

Self selection

Application and contracts: Reading this document and agreeing to the commitments in the accompanying application is one of the key steps to becoming a safeTALK trainer candidate. Where applicable, your employer’s signature is also required. Your signature and your employer’s signature on your application form indicate acceptance of the safeTALK trainer commitments. You will also sign an agreement with similar content at the end of the T4T. LivingWorks takes quality, individual commitment and employer support very seriously. We want you to fully understand what will be required of you as a LivingWorks safeTALK trainer.

Making the right decision: If possible, it is highly recommended that you attend a safeTALK training and/or serve as community support resource at a safeTALK training before applying. Once you know the date of your T4T, schedule your first safeTALK to occur within one month of completing that training. Having your first training scheduled in advance correlates so strongly with eventual success that we recommend you not attend a T4T until you have your first safeTALK scheduled. When a candidate decides that they do not want to become a trainer, only the cost of the materials can be refunded and these materials must be returned to LivingWorks. Consider your decision carefully. Do not let yourself be talked into attending the T4T if you do not feel that being a safeTALK trainer is right for you.

Within safeTALK you can have a very positive impact upon participants learning and at times can also contribute to participants getting in touch with emotions and experiences that they may have not fully integrated. Outside of safeTALK, you will come to be a symbol of the need for open, comfortable and direct talk about suicide in your community and organization. Most in your community and organization will appreciate having such a message evident. Some may not. Talk to a supportive person about what the role of safeTALK trainer might be like in your community or organization.

Instructor feedback

Within one week of your T4T, you will receive feedback from your instructor usually routed through LivingWorks. This feedback will typically offer ideas and suggestions for your first training(s). It might include the suggestion or requirement to purchase consultation or technical support. Before and up to three months after your T4T you will have the option to purchase consultation support in addition to the support you will receive as a registered trainer (look at trainer benefits above again). Consultation support involves access to an experienced safeTALK trainer and instructor for up 90 minutes in a maximum of three phone calls for $100. You need to pay for any connection costs.

Occasionally, an instructor may recommend that you consider contributing to suicide prevention in a way that does not include becoming a safeTALK trainer. In that case, you must return your materials. You will receive a refund for them.

The criteria your instructor will be using to determine the feedback you will receive is organized around the TALK acronym.

Tell: Does the candidate present the content in an open and direct way that is easy to understand? Do the candidate’s comments convey endorsement of the fundamental beliefs?

Ask: Does the candidate ask questions in a direct way that encourage open discussion about suicide?

Listen: Does the candidate listen in an open, respectful and inviting way that encourages participants to express their questions, comments and concerns?

KeepSafe: Does the candidate facilitate awareness of and connections to and between helpers who might be in a community? Does the candidate interact with participants and facilitate the training in a way that promotes safety, openness, and hopefulness about suicide-safer communities?

You will have to make an investment in time and energy to become an effective safeTALK trainer. It will be worth it. safeTALK can pay back what you put into it many times over.