Testimony from Newport City Homes, December 2016, approximately 80 staff qualified in SFA: Suicide First Aid, feedback from staff:
“Our team have attended suicide awareness training recently and yesterday myself and a colleague put this training into action.
We have been dealing with an abandoned property where we had been unable to locate the tenant who had apparently moved out in December. As a last resort we contacted the Police to report the tenant as a possible missing person.
The Police finally managed to locate her at an alternative address and we met with her yesterday regarding her property. At this meeting it was apparent that the lady had severe mental health problems and suicidal behaviour and thoughts. She was not engaging with anyone and had not visited her GP for 6 months. We put the training into action and asked her directly whether she was thinking about suicide, which she was. We spent some time with her listening to her, exploring options and finally coming up with a plan (part of the Suicide-Safety Guide). We offered to take her to her GP yesterday but she promised us she would get an appointment herself and take a friend.
She has since contacted us to say she has attended the appointment with her GP and will be getting an emergency psychiatric appointment within 7 days. She has also been referred to tenancy support and MIND and will be visited next week to help support her move back into her flat. This was a very difficult situation but the training helped us and we have got a positive result for the tenant as she has taken the first step into getting help.
It also shows our caring side in Tenancy Management!”