PABBS – Manchester – February 2022

I recently attended the PABBS training. I would highly recommend it for any members of services or organisations that support people bereaved and affected by the suicide of another; especially those frontline services that encounter these tragic events and have to provide immediate support. The training benefits from being, as it proudly says, evidence based. That evidence, from national and international research, underpins all aspects of the training day. But the day also offered additional and important insights from the trainers’ own lived experience of being bereaved by suicide. That helped ‘ground’ and contextualise the theory and put real experience of surviving this loss at the centre of what presented and shared. We were asked at the outset what we hoped to get from the day. Mine was that my knowledge and understanding, and my practice in my role, was ‘right’ and still relevant. It confirmed that, but also gave me new insights and perspectives that were vital and valuable.