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Primary Care

Testimonials

Anna Ryder, Bereavement Counsellor, Love jasmine

I recently attended the PABBS training with Angela and Sharon and it was refreshing to be able to speak so openly on a subject matter that others may try to avoid. The day was well structured and the resources shared were exceptional. The day was well paced, engaging and Angela and Sharon set a suitable environment to ensure no question was a ‘silly question’ and welcomed them all to be asked. As an organisation, we were able to recognise what we do well, but also left us with ways to improve and with the confidence to do so.

PABBS – Manchester – February 2022

Jos Stares, PCN Care Co-Ordinator, OneNorwich Practices, Norfolk

“This course was extremely helpful and informative. They covered general bereavement as well as bereavement by suicide, there was a lot I didn’t know/ or realise (now do). This will be an instrumental tool when I am working with my patients”

PABBS Training – NORWICH – May 2021

Mairead Ashton, Educational Mental Health Practitioner, RDASH NHS Foundation Trust, Doncaster

I found the training [PABBS] invaluable and has offered me some great ideas on how to support people after suicide. It was great to hear people’s lived experience and to know that it is ok not to have all the answers but to simply be there for them afterwards can be enough.

PABBS in-house training – Doncaster – October 2020

Carol Smith, Counsellor, Healthy Minds, Oldham

As a counselor I come into contact with many bereaved people and have felt confident in my skills to offer support and hopefully comfort.  However when I have been met with people bereaved by suicide I was always nervous of saying or doing the wrong thing.  Through attending PABBS and the practical training delivered by a team who are both knowledge and passionate about their subject helped me build my confidence in supporting those who have been bereaved by suicide.
PABBS training – Manchester – January 2020

Nic Ferguson, Caseworker, Victim Support, Gloucester

I found the day insightful, informative and inspiring. The trainers offered research-based content with sensitivity and conviction. I’d highly recommend PABBS training to anyone in a helping profession.
PABBS in-house training – Gloucester – December 2019

Dr John Dudgeon, Medical Case Examiner, General Medical Council (GMC)

The PABBS course helped me in a number of ways. It was reassuring to learn the approach I currently take was broadly in keeping with what was being promoted. This was encouraging and important to hear as often, particularly in general practice, you work in isolation and uncertainty about how you handle sensitive tasks can predominate. To see the challenges those bereaved for any reason, but particularly by suicide, presented to all of us in the room that day allowed me to better accept this role we fulfil; a role most around us will never experience. As someone who is carefully watching how primary care in the UK is changing, I was encouraged that I was the only doctor in the room; despite the course having been initially designed with GPs in mind. I was impressed by the skill and compassion demonstrated by my fellow attendees. This left me reassured that we are increasingly going to be able to provide PABBS to those who most need it; as we have recognised it does not need to be given by a doctor. Given the leadership role GPs are asked to take within primary care it would, however, be important that GPs in a senior role were familiar with the skills PABBS provides. I would like to thanks the presenters who were open about their own relationships with the issues we discussed. This empowered them to provide a  credible and empathic approach to the day.
PABBS training – Manchester – December 2019

Helen John, Primary Mental Health Nurse, Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, West Midlands

In one sentence it was both emotional and inspirational.
PABBS in-house training – Dudley – December 2019

Rebecca Firth, Assistant Psychologist, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Yorkshire

I attended the PABBS Suicide Bereavement Training in Manchester in December 2019. I work for CAMHS in an Assistant Psychologist position and my work brings me into contact with young people who are bereaved by suicide. This training allowed me to hone the skills I didn’t realise I already had, and taught me new skills that help me gain a greater understanding of bereavement by suicide in order for me to pass these skills on to the young people I work with. Highly recommend it to everyone.
PABBS training – Manchester – December 2019

Gemma McIntosh, CAMHS Primary Practitioner, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Yorkshire

This training provides great insight into the grief process and the complexities of supporting someone bereaved by suicide. The trainers have an incredible amount of knowledge about the subject area and provided a safe, comfortable space to explore thoughts and feelings of those that attended in a contained, well-paced way. I enjoyed the opportunity to hear perspectives of fellow trainees who were from lots of different clinical backgrounds and feel that this was an invaluable part of the training.
PABBS training – Manchester – December 2019

Lorraine O’Mara, Young Persons Counsellor, Manchester and Blackburn Foyer, Blackburn

I recently attended the PABBS training in Manchester, the course exceeded my expectations and will be very useful in the future whilst working with young people.The training will help me to identify the risk of suicide and the likely hood of suicide in families. The course in delivered in a professional manner with many. Interesting facts to support the information delivered.
PABBS training – Manchester – December 2019

Catherine Booth, Counsellor, North Halifax Grammar School, Halifax

I would say that this is everything you want from a day’s training: thought-provoking discussion, fantastic resources and a fresh perspective on such a difficult subject. If ever it was worth spending a day training, this was it.
PABBS Training – Manchester – September 2019

Anne Hazlehurst, Senior Contract and Service Improvement Officer, NHS Rotherham CCG, Rotherham

The PABBS suicide bereavement training was very informative and useful. The training was very well facilitated and there was good dialogue and sharing of ideas between organisations.
PABBS in-house training – Rotherham – July 2019

Dr Petra Holmes, GP, Rotherham

A fantastic course, excellent presentations , high quality handouts and great facilitators for discussions. The course also enable local networking and sharing of different practices between surgeries. The personal experience of people who have been affected by suicide was very thought provoking. Important points raised and possible changes to practice policy are due to be discussed at our next GP meeting. We have now made a comprehensive list of local and national help available for patients.
PABBS in-house training – Rotherham – July 2019

Marie Armstrong, Nurse Consultant, CAMHS – Self-harm, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, East Midlands

I attended the PABBS training which I found useful and inspiring. It was co-facilitated very well, giving different perspectives. The use of video material was very helpful in promoting the message that postvention is suicide prevention. The accompanying materials and resources are great to help take actions forward in my own organisation and to help share key messages with others. Thank you for developing this work in this crucial but previously neglected area.
PABBS training – Manchester – June 2019

Sue Aitken, Branch Supervisor, Broom Lane Medical Centre, Rotherham

This training is a key priority for Primary Care staff, to be able to provide support for the patient with suicidal thoughts and to provide quality care for the bereaved from suicide.
PABBS in-house training – Rotherham – April 2019

Jeannie Owens, Trainee Psychotherapist, Unity Radio, Manchester

A well organised, informative course, on such a sensitive subject. Delivered in the most respectable way.
PABBS training – Manchester – February 2019

Keren Firth, Nurse Practitioner, Manorfield Surgery, Rotherham

PABBS evidence based suicide bereavement training,  very useful and insightful, delivering a sensitive subject in a much needed down to earth but compassionate way. The trainers knew their subject well, and were both friendly and supportive throughout the course.
PABBS in-house training – Rotherham – January 2019

Bobby Pratrap, Deputy Head of Mental Health, NHS England, UK

‘The NHS long term plan includes funding and commitments to have suicide bereavement services available in every area, to anyone who is bereaved by suicide. This training may therefore well worth a look to prepare for implementation of that aim’.
Twitter response to PABBS Training

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

Nicky Maunder, Public Health Commissioning Officer, Gloucestershire County Council, Gloucester

We commissioned the Postvention: Assisting those Bereaved By Suicide (PABBS) course to find out how useful it is in increasing understanding across organisations supporting those who have been bereaved by suicide.  The feedback we’ve received (all of which has been positive) has demonstrated that it is very valuable to those who provide that important support to people who have been bereaved.

PABBS in-house training – Gloucester – February 2018