Bertelsmann Education Group | London, 01/16/2019

Relias UK Wins Award For Suicide Prevention Training

Deanna Roepke

Subject: Society
Country: United Kingdom
Category: Project

Relias UK is contributing to suicide prevention with an online training program developed for the National Health Service’s Zero Suicide Alliance. Relias had joined the Alliance in 2017  . This training program has now won this year’s Engage Award for “Best Use of Training.”

In November 2017, Relias UK had launched an online suicide prevention training course. Now this program has won the Best Use of Training award at the Engage Awards 2018. Relias developed the program for the Zero Suicide Alliance (ZSA) in the U.K., set up by the National Health Service (NHS) to combat the increasing number of suicides in Britain. As reported, Relias UK also joined this alliance in 2017.

The annual Best Use of Training Award is presented to the organization that can best demonstrate how it has used training to measurably and sustainably increase the motivation and commitment of employees or customers in a way that positively impacts the organization’s performance or productivity. Criteria for the award are a clear objective, a high degree of innovation, systematic implementation, and the measurable success of a nominated project or product. Relias and the NHS prevailed over other renowned finalists including British Telecom, Royal Bank of Scotland, Jardine Motors Group, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

“We’re so pleased to accept the Engage Award for ‘Best Use of Training’ for the Zero Suicide Alliance,” said Deanna Roepke, Managing Director of Relias (UK). “This valuable recognition can only serve to raise awareness, to get more people taking the course and having potentially life-saving conversations with others who might be at risk.” To achieve this, the two partners NHS and Relias offer a free, online suicide prevention course that is open to everyone via the ZSA website.

The suicide rate in Britain is high. In 2016, the year before the ZSA was founded, 6,188 people in the U.K. took their own lives. As a response to this, 70 companies, organizations, and politicians joined forces in the ZSA. Relias UK has been a partner from the very beginning and contributed the online course. It is used to train volunteers to identify when someone is presenting suicidal thoughts and to then be able to intervene in an appropriately sensitive way. The e-learning course “Suicide – Let's Talk” is aimed at healthcare professionals as well as the British general public.