Secondary Care

The PABBS training was highly relevant to my Family Liaison role, providing valuable insight into the impact of suicide and bereavement on families and wider communities. The facilitators delivered the training with great sensitivity, compassion and expertise, creating a safe space for reflection and discussion. It encouraged me to reflect on my communication and listening skills when supporting bereaved families, whilst reinforcing the importance of self-care and professional resilience. I would highly recommend this training to anyone involved in family engagement, bereavement support or mental health services.

The training was welcoming and destigmatised from the offset – we were all encouraged to ask open questions and learn from each other. I work with young people and families who have been bereaved by suicide, and I have also been bereaved by suicide myself. I found it deeply comforting to find out that most people in the training session had also been touched by these unfortunate circumstances. There were many opportunities to share knowledge, build skills and be vulnerable in a safe and professional way. The trainers were incredibly understanding and it made the whole thing so much more meaningful that they shared their lived experience too. Not only did I take many new skills and awareness away from this day, I also learned about support services and local offers that people I work with, can use. I also decided to join one of those services for my own loss, which has been a huge support for me personally. I may not have found that without PABBS and their brilliant training offer.

I attended PABBS training on recommendation from a colleague. I found the training to be interactive, interesting and supportive to my practice. The theme of “postvention” was really useful in understanding ongoing needs and relating that to clinical risk in practice. I particularly found the element of anticipatory grief relevant to my current practice and have used this discussion to inform other colleagues and patient care planning. I have recommended the training to colleagues alongside directing the team to some of the online resources highlighted. All round a great day.

I recently attended the PABBS Training. The trainers were excellent and presented the day in a very informative and sensitive manner. It showed the impact of suicide on family, friends, colleagues, professionals, and witnesses. There were plenty of facts and figures to support information and some booklets to take away. I would highly recommend this course to anyone as it gives a much different perspective to the suicide courses we have done in the past. Thank you.

This training seems essential to attend – for all clinicians and managers within the mental health service. It was well delivered by compassionate and insightful trainers who successfully engaged their audience. The course content was interesting and provided useful updates on the current suicide trends including appropriate terminology when discussing this difficult area with service users. It became apparent that a number of delegates had been or were close to burn out within the mental health field – this training helped discuss the difficult boundary between caring for others whilst ensuring much necessary self care. Again I would recommend to all within the mental health field.

I recently attended the PABBS training in Oldham for Pennine NHS Foundation Trust.

As a Church of England Chaplain, I thought I was prepared and thought I had some knowledge about dealing with ‘bereaved after suicide.’ This course just re-iterated what a very complex situation this is. It has offered me time to think about how I can change my attitude and skills in dealing with this very sensitive time. I wish I had some of this valuable information before I had to support two families who had lost children to suicide. I cannot recommend the course enough, the trainers and the course content are excellent….Hopefully this situation wont be a common occurrence but if it happens again I feel so much more equipped to support family friends and colleaugues and of course to look after myself.

As a Paramedic of 18 years, I have often attended those who have died by suicide, and always felt out of my depth when speaking to families or friends around the patient, what do you actually say to someone who’s loved one you cannot help.  Hearing the lived experience of Angela opened my eyes as to how the small gestures matter, how the blanket around a shoulder, a separate space or even just a shoulder to lean on is important.  It is invaluable training for anyone who will come into contact with the relatives of those who have died by suicide, to better understand how the things we say and how we act may have an impact on the family for may years to come.  

As both a practitioner and a person who has lost someone to suicide, I really valued the session on the language to use around suicide with Angela. I think mental health professionals can often struggle with discomfort and preconceptions when we talk about suicide. I felt the session really empowered me to be direct in the language I use, but also helped me to understand that this can be done in a sensitive way that opens up helpful discussions. I also felt it provided some really useful thinking around the importance of considering the implications of the language we use when talking about suicide in the media. I’m planning to feed back the session to my team and would recommend it to anyone working in a service where suicide is often discussed.

As a Mental Health First Aider/support worker i was inspired by the trainers knowledge and  research. Their first hand experience in supporting those affected personally and professionally, was expressed in the training and reconfirmed that this is an important area to develop my knowledge in . Highly recommend.

PABBS facilitators attended my workplace and delivered a workshop for our Family Liaison Practitioners.  The facilitators presented some information that was entirely new to me, enabled me to examine my approach to speaking to and listening to families and how to look after myself.  The presentation was more a conversation and that was appreciated by the whole group.  The subject was handled very sensitively, with passion and compassion.  The course contents were entirely relevant and the resources are of a very high standard.  I’m really pleased that I and the team undertook this training, and it would come with my recommendation.

The PABBS training session helped bring confidence and understanding amongst our team around the needs and wants of those who are bereaved by suicide, while also highlighting the importance of self-care for those who are supporting others affected. The course acts as a prompt to reconsider and re-evaluate our assumptions about who is and how people are impacted by suicide, as well as taking a more sustained and long-term approach to supporting those impacted. Yinka and Sharon put the team at ease immediately and were personable, knowledgeable and engaging hosts throughout, ensuring that a session focusing on a fairly sombre topic was enjoyable to be a part of.

I attended the course with some apprehension, it’s a very relaxed environment and humour and appreciation for one another story is very pertinent to your own understanding of suicide and bereavement. It was also purposeful to connect to others on the course who have a lived experience of suicide that may shape how you deal with or manage future families that you may support in your role or profession. It would be good for me as an NHS professional to understand the journey of grief after suicide and I hope this would be explored further on the day. But appreciating one day is a short window to experience or develop such skills or at least have confidence in your acquisition. The resources that were given were good and already embedded them in my own workstream to support families and shared these amongst other colleagues. How we look after ourselves is very pertinent to our own resilience and something I need to develop-That was one thing I took away as a personal task. 

‘Recently attended the one day ‘Postvention: Assisting those bereaved by suicide’ training with my colleague and found the content invaluable for providing appropriate support to those bereaved by suicide.  The course was thought-provoking, engaging and well delivered, and involved other partner agencies which added other relevant perspectives.  I would recommend the course to anyone involved in supporting those bereaved by suicide or designing and implementing services to support others impacted by these events.’

‘I found the training informative and appropriated the recommend reading as both have helped to fill any small gaps in my information or confidence and reassured me that what I have been doing is the right approach’. 

The PABBS training was fantastic. I was captivated by the trainers and the passion they had for their work. The course elements were very well structured, insightful and engaging.  It made me reflect on how I had responded to suicide and things that I could aspire to do differently going forward. The course material was comprehensive and full of information on bereavement and where to go for support.  The training gave me an excellent foundation to build on and links to resources I never knew existed.  A massive thank you.

The training was superb.

‘I found the PABBS Training to be very informative.  The trainers were excellent in their presentation of information throughout the day and there was plenty of opportunity for discussion. The training highlighted the impact of suicide on both those bereaved and the wider impact on others e.g. friends, work colleagues, health professions, emergency responders etc. I would certainly recommend this training to those working in mental health.  So much to take away and consider’.