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The CS Survival Guide: What I Wish I Knew For Suicide Prevention
Introduction When I sat down to take my first call as a Lifeline volunteer, I thought; “This must be a huge mistake.” Was I really ready? What if I said the wrong thing? My supervisor leaned over and gave me a line I still carry with me to this day: “Just trust the process, Said.”…
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The Secret Behind My Bulletproof Resilience In Crisis Support
When I started volunteering in suicide prevention, growth hurt. So badly. Now? My work improves with ease. I used to ask: why is it so difficult to just… get better? Some calls would go super well and I’d feel like I did a great job. Only to connect the dots later and realise I’d projected…
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How Reflective Practice Improved My Suicide Prevention Skills
More than anything, this is what helped me grow. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and hope you can learn from them. This article breaks down how reflective practice systems changed the game for me in suicide prevention and crisis support. Self awareness, skillset growth, competence and confidence all greatly improved. It covers my experience,…
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Using Abstraction In Suicide Prevention
There’s a powerful, hidden skill in suicide prevention. Read this article and you’ll be able to practice it in every day conversation – maybe even with people in distress. Who knows, it might help you support someone down from the edge. It’s called ‘Abstraction’. Abstraction is very popular and well understood in other fields like…
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How To Write With Life Saving Clarity In Digital Crisis Support
In learning suicide prevention there’s a tonne of obstacles and challenges. It’s hard, scary work and you’re here remove some of those obstacles and equip yourself with tools, skills and mindset to lower the barrier for others too. Long term this kind of work – preventing suicide – changes people, changes families, changes communities and…
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How To Finally Stop Asking ‘Why’ To People In Crisis
‘Why do you think he lied to me?’ she asked yet again, as though we hadn’t covered it a hundred times this week. My eyes wanted to roll as far back into my head as they could, I didn’t let them. I’d been here so many times in my life, with my mum, my exes,…
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I Found It Much Easier To Show Kindness To Others Than Myself
I still remember the first call I ever answered. At the end, I let out a huge sigh of defeat. My coach asked me to reflect on how it went. I unleashed a torrent. ‘I messed this part up, failed to do this, wish I’d not said that’. It went on and on until finally…
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My Burnout Went From Unwelcome Guest To Good Friend Because I Changed
Burnout sucks. It’s come and settled into my life twice. The first time I drifted away from volunteer work it was a gentle tide pulling me. The next time it was a tidal wave destroying everything – my relationships, my hard won sobriety, my identity. In years of suicide prevention I’ve seen it take away…
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How To Give The Worst Suicide Support Part 2
Forget your self care. If you are serious about wanting to be the best at giving the worst support, put yourself last. This is an absolutely sure fire way you’ll offer abominable support. I would know because I was there. It got so bad I had to take myself off the service so I could…
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How To Give The Worst Suicide Support Possible Part 1
Turn all lessons into absolutes. Offering suicide support is nuanced and individual, because people are individual! So the best way to offer terrible support is to treat everything you learn like an absolute rule. If it works in one situation, make sure you apply it in absolutely all situations! The more you can ignore the…
