A tough read.

@DavidPointon and I attended the most amazing course on Thursday and Friday of last week in Paramatta. It was the ASIST course which is Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training and it was run by Living Works. The title says it all really. This course focuses very narrowly, on that moment when you discover that somebody in your life or indeed a stranger is about to suicide. That moment only. That moment when you will be required to literally have a life or death conversation. Think about that; there is no harder conversation! Think about all those tough conversations you have had over the years about, kids eating vegetables, about teenage kids ignoring curfews, about firing somebody, not getting a promotion, leaving a relationship, owning up to something. Well, I hope these are now all put into perspective. If somebody is standing on the edge of a bridge what would you say? Would you be tempted to walk on by, or turn the radio up and put your foot down. That just looks way to hard, anyways, I have to get home. How would you feel after that? What if a close friend of yours was acting differently, not being social, not making an effort, suddenly drinking too much. Would you ask the questions?

Here are the facts, 8 people a day suicide in Australia; every day. 8 people feel that life is way too much to handle and they are now a burden. It is widely recognised that suicide figures are under-reported at up to 25%, so we can assume that 8 is our base figure. We could say that possibly the number is 10 a day, 3650 a year. It has also been reported that a further 84 people a day, call, or have an ambulance called for them because they have attempted to suicide. The maths on that is staggering: that is 30,660 a year. Now extrapolate that out to all the people sitting with these thoughts; you probably know some. The figure is massive. Remember, some people who are depressed don’t suicide, some people who are never depressed suicide. Finding this article tough going? I suspect so. However, this is part of what happens in the world. I hope it will never be yours.

Whether you like it or not, in this situation, you are the lifeguard. As an analogy, somebody is drowning, it is you who has to jump in. You are the lifeguard. Yes, you! Do you know what to say?

I highly recommend taking this course as a life skill, as I said before, I hope you never need to use it. However, what a skill to have just in case you need to save somebodies life!

Thank you to @StephanieMaraz and @JoeTighe for their wonderful facilitating of this course via Living Works. 

Men often sit in silence around how they feel, bottling it up. A safe place to voice how they really feel can release emotions and help with any dark thoughts. At The Men's Table men come to share the highs and lows of how they feel.

If you know a man who could do with a meal and a chat, the next Men’s Table Entrée is here. Tuesday 6th November in Surry Hills.