“Did you know that just a few days ago, a man completed suicide live on Facebook? He literally put a shotgun under his chin and blew his head off. In no time at all, it was uploaded onto Tik Tok and went viral,” says Kevin Moore, co-founder of mental health enterprise Big Dog, Little Dog (BDLD).

“You’ve got two platforms that you instantly associate with young people. When a suicide happens, it increases the risks of rebound suicide; it’s called 'suicide contagion'. One of the ways you can reduce that risk is education.”

Together with co-founder Bob Kitchin, Moore is on a mission to educate the world about suicide awareness and prevention. 

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Today, on World Suicide Prevention Day, they launch three brand-new qualifications specifically on suicide. 

The qualifications are aimed at anyone aged 16 and over and have been developed by BDLD in partnership with awarding body NCFE, online content creator LearnBox and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers. The goal is clear: to save lives. 

In 2018, the Office for National Statistics registered 6,507 suicides – a 10.9 per cent increase from the previous year’s data. In this same report period, the increase in deaths in the under 25s increased by 23.7 per cent.

That was all pre-Covid-19. In a recent survey by YoungMinds, 80 per cent of young people said that their mental health had been made worse by the pandemic. 

“The impact of Covid and lockdown has disproportionately affected young people more than other age groups – for a lot of young people for whom their key relationships are peer groups, not being in a position to continue the level of activity and engagement has clearly had a detrimental impact,” says Kitchin.

“It’s not just that lack of contact with peer groups – it’s all the other things that matter so much to young people who may be transitioning into the wider world. The steps into the workplace are becoming harder, young people are losing jobs at a higher rate than those at other ages. Both statistically and anecdotally that is being played out everywhere we go.” 

Kitchin and Moore have been delivering training courses on suicide awareness for years – but as the true impact of the pandemic played out, they decided those qualifications needed to become more mainstream. 

And after speaking to the NCFE and AELP, it was decided that a level 2, level 3 and level 4 qualification would be designed.

The right STEPS

The qualifications are built upon a simple model, called STEPS: situation, tolerance, emotions, perspective, suicidal thoughts. Learners are taught how to have effective and meaningful conversations with those they fear might be having suicidal thoughts by working through the letters. 

The level 2 course gives learners a basis of suicide prevention knowledge, the level 3 teaches learners how to put this knowledge into practice and gives learners the opportunity to have one of those conversations face-to-face, and the level 4 trains learners to be able to deliver levels 2 and 3. The level 2 and 3 qualifications are both Ofqual regulated, and the level 4 is accredited by CACHE.

Both Kitchin and Moore recognise that there are many existing discussions already taking place on suicidal awareness in education settings and businesses. However, Kitchin stresses the importance of translating these discussions into action. 

“Raising awareness and talking about suicide awareness in an education setting is definitely good, but without that next step of practising having a conversation and having a format within which to have a conversation about suicide, it’s a bit like learning to drive a car with a manual and discussing it. You have to at some point, get behind the wheel and you have to develop skills and practice. There’s where confidence comes from,” he says. 

Kitchin and Moore recognise the importance of accessibility and have worked with LearnBox to produce an online version of the level 2 course. Lucy Dunleavy, Learn Box’s CEO, says that having the course online allows it to have “maximum reach and impact.”

“Mental health is a massive issue and a lot of people don’t feel comfortable leaving their own home, so it was all around how do we get in front of those people, the ones who may need it the most,” she says. 

“The level 2 is all about destigmatising suicide and there's only one of Kev and Bob and it’s impossible for them to get around everyone. But what they’ve created is fantastic and everyone needs to complete this course. We’re in a suicide pandemic.”

There is one “small fly in the ointment”, says David Gallagher, chief executive at the NCFE. As it currently stands, funding has not been approved from the Education, Skills and Funding Agency (ESFA) for the qualifications. He says he is “reasonably confident”’ funding will be awarded, “given the weight of evidence we have put behind the qualification.”  

Gallagher says that ultimately, he wants every member of staff in further education to go through the programme and for every student to have access to it. But his hopes don’t stop there. 

“Imagine if everybody in the country was trained and qualified in suicide prevention. Imagine how many lives could be saved?” he asks.

A balanced, factual way

The other collaborators have high aspirations too. Dunleavy says that she’d like to see it become mandatory in the same way the Prevent programme is. And Moore says that he’d like to see apprentices, trainees, frontline workers do the level 2 or 3 course as part of their training. 

“In the next year, the challenge we’ve got is for every college and independent training provider in the country to take up the level two, and for certain key sectors to really engage with the level 3,” he says. 

“The long term aim is for these qualifications to become mainstream. Parents can use them with their children. Teenagers can use them with their peers. No one gets to the age of 16 unaware of suicide, so let’s make sure they are learning about it in a balanced, factual way that has a tone of positivity.

“The key message we give out is that suicidal thoughts are common and they don’t have to be acted upon. The more we can educate people about that, the more we can save lives.”