Personal and professional experience has inspired includem’s Learning & Development Co-ordinator, Georgie Aitchison to share her learning on mental health and suicide prevention with colleagues across Glasgow.
Includem offers free places on these courses to partner organisations in the city as a way of keeping mental health and wellbeing in focus.
‘One of the first courses I attended as a Social Care professional was ASIST (Applied
Suicide Intervention Skills Training) which was a very passionate subject for me due to my own struggles as a young person,’ said Georgie.
‘From there I’ve expanded to deliver all forms of suicide prevention, self-harm and mental health training.’
Over the past 12 months Georgie has provide 87 days of training to more than 90 professionals from across 19 Glasgow organisations includem works closely with including: Action For Children, Aberlour, Glasgow Caledonian University, Simon Community, Glasgow Clyde College and the Scottish Refugee Council as well as client Glasgow City Council.
Courses include ASIST Suicide Prevention, SafeTalk, What’s the Harm – Self Harm awareness and Scottish Mental Health First Aid
‘Our staff are required to be trained in this area, but we decided to open up this training to partner organisations we were working with as an additional free service, it’s so important to keep mental health awareness in the forefront of people’s thinking,’ she said.
‘It’s also a great way to get a discussion going about collaboration as bringing different organisations together to learn is a great opportunity to share experiences and best practice across the sector.’
‘Being part of Public Health Scotland I have access to a huge network that we can offer help and training to. Once an organisation has been on one course, we find that their colleagues are soon attending too.’
