Learn and practice powerful, life-changing skills in just four hours.
LivingWorks safeTALK is a four-hour training that equips people to be more alert to someone thinking of suicide and better able to connect them with further help. Using a simple yet effective model, LivingWorks safeTALK empowers everyone to make a difference. With over 120,000 people attending each year, it’s the world’s fastest-growing suicide prevention skills training course.
In LivingWorks safeTALK you will learn how to reach out to someone thinking about suicide and help them keep safe by promptly connecting them to further support. Your role as a connector is the main focus of this training, which features:
People count on LivingWorks training to build safer communities and workplaces. Thatʼs why weʼre committed to offering programs that are tested, proven, and evidence based. With over 50 peer-reviewed studies and government reports validating the impact of our programs, we have the most robust evidence base in the suicide prevention training field. Like all of LivingWorks’ core programs, LivingWorks safeTALK is evidence-based.
LivingWorks safeTALK participants learn to recognize when someone is thinking about suicide and connect them to an intervention provider, such as a LivingWorks ASIST trained helper. In this way, LivingWorks safeTALK participants build a safety network around these intervention providers and greatly increase their reach and impact.
LivingWorks safeTALK workshops can be arranged for your organization or group, tailored to the needs of your staff, volunteers or members. Our training team can support you with workshop logistics, promotion and a tailored training experience that fits with your existing suicide prevention initiatives or priorities.
Our team can work with you to help you find the best training solution. If you still have questions after reading the information on this page and frequently asked questions below, please contact us and one of our team will be in touch.
Most people who die by suicide (in particular young people and men) are not in the healthcare system. Therefore when they are thinking about suicide, they are at home, in the workplace and/or community. This means we need a whole-of-community approach to protect them from suicide.
It is estimated that each year more than 700,000 people die by suicide. Evidence tells us family, friends and coworkers are the people best placed to notice when someone is having thoughts of suicide, and to provide support and refer them on to crisis services. However, research also indicates that suicide-related knowledge and confidence to intervene, is really lacking in the community. This is why LivingWorks has dedicated the last 40 years to empowering communities with the knowledge and confidence they need to intervene through our skills training.
The 'safe' in safeTALK stands for Suicide Alertness For Everyone. Everyone over the age of 15 years who wants to help keep the people around them safe from suicide should attend.
LivingWorks safeTALK workshops are provided by registered LivingWorks trainers. In order to facilitate the workshop, trainers must attend a LivingWorks safeTALK Training for Trainers (T4T) and extensively study the program. They must also participate in a rigorous quality control process and maintain their skills by presenting LivingWorks safeTALK workshops on a regular basis. We can also identify specific trainers within your sector/discipline/region if required.
In addition to the trainer, each LivingWorks safeTALK workshop includes a Community Support Resource (CSR) to keep the room safe. This LivingWorks ASIST trained CSR will be on hand if anyone is in need of assistance during the training.
Although LivingWorks safeTALK and ASIST are separate programs, they are designed to complement each other. The two-day LivingWorks ASIST workshop provides skills to intervene with someone who may be having thoughts of suicide, helping them feel less overwhelmed and perhaps most importantly, the LivingWorks ASIST model also involves creating a safety plan with the person help them keep safe, access help and find hope.
It would not be possible to learn and practice all of the LivingWorks ASIST skills in LivingWorks safeTALK’s half-day timeframe, although many who attend LivingWorks safeTALK later decide to take LivingWorks ASIST. What LivingWorks safeTALK does do is help participants identify people who may be having thoughts of suicide, confidently ask them about the topic of suicide, and connect them with resources that can help keep them safe. This might be a professional caregiver or someone trained in LivingWorks ASIST—often, they’re one and the same! By providing a connection to intervention resources, LivingWorks safeTALK offers an important avenue to assistance when people need it most.
Many communities and organizations use both LivingWorks safeTALK and ASIST. By working in concert, people with LivingWorks safeTALK and ASIST training create a larger, more effective network of safety.
Both LivingWorks Start and safeTALK strengthen a participant’s skills in Suicide Alertness, which includes how to identify someone around you who may be having thoughts of suicide, ask them the question directly, and then refer them on to safety connections within the community. LivingWorks safeTALK covers these steps in more detail, and also provides skills training for active listening and understanding, before learning how to refer someone to a professional caregiver. The second half of LivingWorks safeTALK then moves into community myths about suicide that frequently prevent appropriate referral. This includes the myth that asking someone about their thoughts of suicide might “put suicide in their head” - evidence proves this is not possible - or the idea that only a Clinician should ask someone about their thoughts of suicide (also not true!). As an in-person workshop, LivingWorks safeTALK provides an avenue for participants to ask questions and clarify any concerns in-person and apply their skills in a practice session.
LivingWorks safeTALK is run strictly face-to-face. If you are looking for an online option, please consider our program LivingWorks Start.
If you have lost your LivingWorks certification of completion for your LivingWorks safeTALK, LivingWorks ASIST, or LivingWorks suicide to Hope training, we can replace it for you. Click here to fill out the replacement form.
“Having completed the training a number of years ago, I can honestly say it’s the one of most useful & eye-opening courses I’ve done.”
Please fill out the following form to receive information about hosting a private face to face workshop for your organization/community group, or receiving a set of Start online training licenses.