Training frontline health and care professionals in suicide risk and prevention

Training workers across multiple healthcare and social care settings is an essential component of a successful national suicide prevention strategy.

Our Skills Training on Risk Management (STORM) project became the world’s first comprehensively evaluated suicide risk and prevention training package. Our research demonstrated that suicide prevention skills, attitudes, and knowledge could be improved across a range of health and care professionals, such as doctors, nurses, clinical psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, and healthcare assistants.

Since the initial research was completed, further work has identified the need for suicide risk and prevention training to be offered to pharmacists. This training has been developed and implemented collaboratively with the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education.

STORM is made accessible by offering not-for-profit organisations subsidised training sessions and by designing bespoke training packages. Although its largest client-base is the NHS, STORM has extended its reach far beyond healthcare and social care settings.

STORM partners with multiple organisations regionally and nationally, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and is endorsed by the UK Health Security Agency and by the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety at The University of Manchester.

Internationally, STORM training has been delivered successfully in Australia, the Republic of Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Pakistan, and the Falkland Islands.

Relevant publications

• An educational intervention for front-line health professionals in the assessment and management of suicidal patients (The STORM Project).
• Current and potential contributions of community pharmacy teams to self-harm and suicide prevention: A qualitative interview study.
• Improvements to suicide prevention training for prison staff in England and Wales.