Mathew Walsh , Patient Safety Lead, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester
Our staff @PennineCareNHS really valued this training and would strongly recommend it.
Tweet – October 2018 about PABBS training
Mental Health Professionals
Testimonials
Helen Lee-Savage, Suicide Prevention Lead, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, South West England
I recently attended PABBS training and really found it to be a useful and valuable day. I ended the day feeling more confident and more skilled to assist people who had been bereaved by suicide. The training was delivered by knowledgeable professionals who were passionate about their subject. I learnt more about how postvention skills are also prevention skills. The course included some really practical advice on how to support people bereaved by suicide, and how we need to be alert to the vulnerabilities of bereaved families and friends. This is essential training for all health care practitioners.
PABBS training – Manchester – September 2018
Naomi Sutcliffe, Serious Incident Manager, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, North East
I was very pleased to attend the PABBS training in September 2018. A really stimulating and thought provoking day, assisting me to think about our own service development but also about how we support our workforce in being present for people and families experiencing a death by suicide. A worthwhile investment delivered sensitively and with a great level of enthusiasm for a topic that awakens sadness but in the same breath creates hope for the future.
PABBS training – Manchester – September 2018
Margaret Connelly, Major Incident Response Team (MIRT), North Yorkshire & City of York, North East
I currently work in the UK and Africa during and after traumatic incidents. To find someone with Dr Sharon McDonnell’s enthusiasm to bring training and research to frontline specialists is truly inspirational. Sharon brings speakers with innovative, factual and evidence-based experiences, giving practitioners the opportunity to network and build a knowledge bank to enhance our work around the world. This research is key to building a greater knowledge to improve our practice. It was an honour to hear experiences from other practitioners, thank you.
PABBS training – Manchester – July 2018
Sarah Ambridge, Staff Counsellor, Gloucestershire Counselling Service, Gloucester
The PABBS training course I attended in Gloucester in February, was very insightful. I was left thinking about my own attitudes to suicide as well as the fear and anxiety about death in general. Which has been a positive outcome of the course. I have not been personally affected by a suicide. Though, I did counsel a client whose best friend killed himself. He was left feeling responsible for his friend’s death because he had been too tired to respond to his last phone call on the night he took his own life. I have to admit that I felt poorly equipped in the counselling room. I think I am better prepared now, even after only this one day of training. Many of the course delegates had been affected by suicide bereavement. I was touched by the quiet humility of others as they shared their stories. Until attending the training day, I had not fully appreciated the need to speak freely about a bereavement through suicide. Nor had I recognised how isolating a person can feel through experiencing a bereavement this way. Besides the very good audio- visual content which reflected those experiences, the PABBS course offered attendees an open platform to share their feelings of intense shock, disbelief, pain, guilt and sometimes abandonment. Finding some relief perhaps, that they were not alone in their experiences? The course facilitators were excellent and sympathetic to those who wanted to speak, allowing them as much time as they needed. Observing this ‘open forum’, brought into focus the importance of being able to offer more opportunities for all those bereaved by suicide to be heard if they want to be. A place for them to go where they can speak openly about what they are feeling and thinking. The PABBS training course taught me that in my counselling role, I have to be willing to BE with a bereaved survivor of suicide. To listen to them and acknowledge their pain. Not by trying to offer them answers when there aren’t any, nor by attempting to erase their pain but by patiently sharing a dark and lonely place with them. Allowing their grief to be explored for as long as it takes. Death is a pretty taboo subject. Death by suicide even more so. Training courses like PABBS bring the subject out of the closet where it can be aired and thought about. It shouldn’t be shamefully packaged and kept under the counter. Suicide provokes powerful emotional reactions. This was evident throughout the training day. It is an uncomfortable subject but one that is not going to go away. There needs to be more availability of training courses like PABBS to help people like me, find ways to help those left behind after a suicide. They are the ones who need to negotiate a tricky path towards a kind of acceptance that their loved one chose death over life.
PABBS in-house training – Gloucester – February 2018
Mark Turner, Safeguarding Children in Education Officer, Telford and Wrekin Council, West Midlands
I thoroughly enjoyed the Suicide Bereavement Course in Manchester in 2018. It was thought provoking and had a range of professionals in attendance which gave different views to the subject. I came away with skills and strategies that I intend to use in my role in Telford & Wrekin Council as the Safeguarding Children in Education Officer.
PABBS training – Manchester – February 2018
Rachael Winter, Community Clinical Manager, Northumberland Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust, North East
I recently attended the PABBS evidence-based suicide bereavement training which I found to be very informative and thought-provoking. The trainers were compassionate and provided a valuable personal insight into an emotive subject area. The inclusion of videos within the training materials, provided the opportunity to hear directly from families bereaved by suicide, which was very powerful.
PABBS training – Manchester – February 2018
Catherine Lee-Cowan, Serious Incident Investigator, Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, North East
I am a serious incident investigator working in the Patient Safety Team for TEWV mental health Trust. I attended the PABBS training and found it very helpful not only being able to listen to / network with others and learn from their initiatives but also in considering the evidence-based research that was undertaken, it made me think again about how I work / how my organisation works and the processes we have in place for supporting people bereaved by suicide both as staff working with the person as well as their family. This training has made me realise how important the right support at the right time is and we have instigated a review of our post-vention support with a plan to improve this by building on your work! I would highly recommend this training to others.
PABBS training – Manchester – February 2018
Dr Ananta Dave, Consultant Psychiatrist and Suicide Prevention Lead, Dudley & Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, West Midlands
I found the PABBS training to be enlightening, thought provoking and moving. This training and suicide bereavement support should be an integral part of suicide prevention. I have already taken some ideas to my workplace to start making changes to the way we support those bereaved by suicide. Thank you.
PABBS training – Manchester – February 2018
Jason Wear, Advanced Mental Health Practitioner, Berkshire Health NHS Foundation Trust, South East England
I just wanted to say that until I saw your presentation I was unaware of the lack of training/support that was out there and since seeing you I have now introduced an aspect of suicide bereavement into suicide prevention training in Berkshire. I am very much looking forward to enhancing this training following attending PABBS on the 13th March. I learnt a lot about myself (personally and professionally) and my own uncomfortable feelings regarding suicide bereavement, since meeting you and attending the conference I realise that the stigma surrounding this particular issue is not just professional but society as a whole. However, through the continued education of services and putting the word out there in the public domain this will positively impact these stigmas.
PABBS training – Manchester – March 2017
Salli Midgley, Assistant Director of Nursing, Humber NHS Foundation Trust, North East
Presenting our draft suicide prevention plan at Trust Board tomorrow, pleased to be promoting @Connectwpeople training and @SJMcDonn PABBS.
Tweet – January 2017
Dr Martin Lawlor, Consultant Psychiatrist, State of Mind, Republic of Ireland
I found the PABBS training compassionate, caring and highly professional. I would strongly recommend it to my medical colleagues. It has been developed jointly with service users, those bereaved by suicide, GPs and Mental Healthcare professionals and this clearly shows in the structure, style and content of training. It has also been thoroughly evaluated and is one of the few evidenced based postvention training that I have come across.”” I have been around colleagues who have experienced the suicide of a client and one aspect they have all emphasised is their complete lack of knowledge and understanding of what to do after a suicide on all levels. Attending the PABBS postvention training course has given me the understanding, skills and confidence to care for those bereaved by suicide including myself. Having experienced a recent bereavement by suicide in my personal life, the training and knowledge I have learnt at the conference and the PABBS training has been a real source of comfort, hope and strength with which to look after others and myself.
PABBS training – Manchester – January 2016