Our prioritiesPriority one: Capacity Building
Our suicide prevention work puts a strong emphasis on the importance of training and building capacity across the university to promote compassionate conversations and to ensure our staff and students are equipped and confident to support positive mental health and suicide prevention.
It focuses on partnership working, both within and outside the university, to ensure that suicide prevention remains a core focus.
Lived & Living Experience
Scotland’s National Strategy sets a clear aim that work in suicide prevention should be based on research, subject matter expertise and lived/living experience.
Embedding a lived and living experience approach into this work in a higher education setting is challenging, but necessary.
1.1. Staff and students with lived and living experience are members of our project board and suicide safer working groups. This will remain.
1.2. Our internal training delivery will include:
- Ask, Tell, Respond (adult) resource
- Wave after Wave Suicide Bereavement training
- What’s the Harm - Self-harm skills and awareness training
All of these involved lived and living experience input in their development.
1.3. Suicide awareness training is being delivered by students with lived and living experience to their peers. We will explore possible opportunities for peer-led training, and this will be included as an objective within the Student Mental Health Agreement.
1.4. The voices of lived and living experience will be considered in all aspects of strategy development and impact evaluation. Those with lived and living experience will also be involved in any reviews and updates of the strategy.
1.5. We will continue to create external partnerships that give a voice to those with lived and living experience.
Awareness raising
We've collated information about all existing suicide awareness-raising activities in the University. This has helped us to identify gaps and build on current good practice, working towards achieving the following objectives:
1.6. Raise awareness about suicide prevention to help tackle the stigma associated with suicide.
1.7. Encourage help-seeking behaviour and find new and innovative ways to bring awareness of support to staff and students. In particular, we will focus on help-seeking awareness-raising activities for specific at-risk groups, for example members of the LGBTQ+ community, those who are neurodivergent, and international students, along with those who are ‘hardly reached’ (such as those who have jobs that are not computer-based).
1.8. Target isolation through greater promotion of the clubs, peer support networks and societies within Strath Union.
1.9. Embed opportunities for volunteering in suicide prevention within the Student Mental Health Agreement by continuing to strengthen partnerships with external organisations such as Papyrus.
Training & education
As part of a whole-university training group, we have developed a knowledge and skills framework (KSF) for wellbeing, mental health and suicide prevention that aligns closely with the KSF from NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and Public Health Scotland (PHS).
In collaboration with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHSGGC), PHS, NES, and Glasgow City HSCP, this framework will help the University move toward our training and education objectives for the next five years.
These objectives are:
1.10. Provide training opportunities that enable all staff and students to take actions to help themselves and others to feel physically and emotionally safe.
1.11. Promote our knowledge and skills framework for mental health and suicide prevention effectively throughout the University.
1.12. Ensure all counselling staff working in the disability and wellbeing service will be trained in Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS).
1.13. Ensure all our students, assignment workers and staff in private Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) have access to an ‘informed level’ of suicide awareness training.
1.14. Explore partnerships with other colleges and universities in Glasgow to maximise our training provision and resources.
1.15. Embed sustainable training delivery and increase the training capacity through a ‘train the trainer’ approach.
1.16. A major objective within the Disability and Wellbeing Service is that every student and staff member within the University knows someone who is trained to ask them RUOK. Our hope is that this objective will be part of the DNA of everyone at Strathclyde.
1.17. Staff and students who deliver training or who contribute through lived and living experience will have access to support and supervision.
Partnership Working
1.18. Have continued membership from Strathclyde representatives on The National Suicide Prevention Academic Advisory Group, and Glasgow City Suicide Prevention Partnership Group.
1.19. Establish a National Suicide Prevention Network for all Scottish universities and colleges in partnership with Suicide Prevention Scotland and COSLA.
Spotlight: Effective Partnership Working
NES and PHS have assisted our Education Enhancement team in hosting a learning resource module for wellbeing, mental health, and suicide awareness on MyPlace, our Virtual Learning Environment.
This module includes the Ask, Tell Respond resource (adult) that was developed by PHS and NES, in partnership with those with lived and living experience of suicide and mental illness. The resource is available for all staff and students.
This internal availability has removed barriers to access and means we can build extra safeguarding and evaluation questions specific to our setting. The data gathered from this feedback will help in the evaluation phase of the project where we will measure the individual and organisational impact of this work. Feedback and data will also be shared with NES and PHS to help assess the Ask, Tell, Respond resources' suitability for further and higher education settings.