Bertelsmann Education Group | London, 11/22/2017

Relias UK Joins the Zero Suicide Alliance

Subject: Media & Services, Society
Country: Great Britain
Category: Project

Relias UK joins the Zero Suicide Alliance, which combats the high suicide rate in the UK. Relias contributes an online training program that teaches up to one million people how to properly deal with people who are thinking about committing suicide.

In 2016, a total of 6,188 people committed suicide in the UK. This is the official figure, but there may be a large number of unrecorded cases. The newly established Zero Suicide Alliance (ZSA) believes that this number of suicides is way too high, and 70 renowned companies, organizations and politicians have joined its cause. Relias UK is one of them. The leading provider of online training in the healthcare sector, which is also successful in the United Kingdom, plans to provide around one million people with access to suicide prevention courses.

Activating these one million people to make a contribution to combating the high suicide rate in the UK is the declared goal of the ZSA. For this purpose, it banks on Relias training material to teach the volunteers how to recognize people in their environment who are thinking about committing suicide and to take sensitive action to prevent them from doing so. The e-learning course “Suicide – Let’s Talk” is available for free download on the ZSA website. It addresses specialist medical staff as much as all UK citizens. 

The 20-minute course teaches people how to seek out and have the difficult conversation with someone who may be planning to take their own life. People who have had suicidal thoughts but chose to live also have their say. Relias was able to build on more than 15 years of experience in this field for the development of this special course.

Deanna Roepke, Managing Director of Relias UK, said: “We’re honored to be the official training partner of the Zero Suicide Alliance. It aligns with our core values as a company, but what’s more, each member of our team has a personal connection to the purpose. We’ve seen the way effective training can transform mental health outcomes, so to be able to contribute in such a key way is something we’re very proud of.”