Suicide prevention training
With over 30 years of experience, Storm Skills Training CIC provides high-quality, evidence-based training in suicide and self-harm prevention, including assessment and safety planning.
Our training is designed to empower individuals and teams with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to explore the root causes of distress, understand its impact, and work towards effective information sharing and safety.
About us
Comprehensive self-harm and suicide prevention training for diverse sectors
Our self-harm and suicide prevention training package is highly effective and relevant for a wide range of organisations, systems, professions, and sectors. This includes health and social care, mental health teams, schools and higher education, prisons, and primary care.
Empowering frontline teams with evidence-based self-harm and suicide prevention training
We provide a range of self-harm and suicide prevention training courses specifically designed for frontline teams and individuals who regularly interact with individuals in distress and/or have a vulnerability to self-harm and suicide.
Our training is based on the latest research, best practice, and lived experience. We collaborate with teams and individuals to enhance their skills in effectively engaging with someone in distress using a person-centered approach. This includes engagement, holistic assessment, formulation, and personalised safety planning.
Storm Skills Training's methodologies are evidence-based and provide frontline team members with the opportunity to practice, reflect, and receive feedback in a safe and supportive learning environment. For the more advanced levels of our courses, we incorporate filmed skills practice to ensure the highest standard of skills development.
Conversations about self-harm and suicide prevention can be dynamic and challenging. Therefore, our training is designed to be dynamic and challenging as well.
We are committed to understanding your needs and ensuring the best use of your time and resources, whether you have a small team or are an individual looking to enhance your skills in self-harm and suicide prevention. We are here to support you.
Our training is primarily delivered across the United Kingdom, including England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as in Ireland and Australia. Suicide is everybody's business, and at Storm Skills Training CIC we are committed to helping people enhance their skills in self-harm and suicide prevention. Even if you're located outside these areas, we encourage you to reach out to us. We may be able to accommodate your needs through remote training options or by exploring other possibilities to support your learning journey.
Our evidence
Our training is based on academic research, evidence, and best practice, with a focus on lived experience.
Discover how our training is firmly rooted in research - it is a core part of our identity and it lies at the heart of everything we do, and it always will. By choosing Storm Skills Training, you can be confident that you're investing in a training package and methodology that is of the highest quality, and that it is based on research, evidence, evaluation, and consultation.
Why choose Storm Skills Training?
Evidence-based training methodologies: Our unique focus on skills, research, and quality
We take what we learn from research, best practice, and lived experience to create our training. We then work with teams and individuals to enhance skills to use this effectively in a conversation with someone in distress using a person-centred approach – including engagement, holistic assessment, formulation, and personalised safety planning.
Our evidence-based training methodologies give frontline team members the opportunity to practice, reflect, and give and receive feedback on skills in a safe and supportive learning environment. We use the highest standard of skills development, which includes filmed skills practice for the more advanced levels of our courses.
Through a combination of observation, skills practice, and filmed skills practice, participants will refine their ability to provide compassionate and collaborative support, including full psychosocial assessments, risk formulations, and personalised safety plans.
Our training is dynamic and challenging because conversations about self-harm and suicide prevention can be dynamic and challenging.
Storm Skills Training is proven to be effective
We deliver high-quality training that makes a difference and has an impact. Studies have shown that our training package is effective in:
- Developing and enhancing skills
- Improving attitudes
- Increasing confidence in helping someone who is in distress
Research supports the effectiveness of our training across a range of audiences including mental health, health and social care, volunteer workers, schools and higher education, and prisons.
Our ethical social business model with real social impact
We are proud to be an organisation that is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion. We believe that our differences make us stronger.
We are not for profit and we believe strongly that no one should profit from the distress of others. This is important, it’s why we became a social enterprise in the first place.
The success of our training benefits the community and we're committed to ensuring that every penny generated contributes to achieving our vision and mission.
Our Vision is:
- Fewer lives lost to suicide and self-harm
Our Mission is:
- To deliver high-quality, evidence-based training which improves knowledge, skills, and confidence, creating effective self-harm and suicide prevention.
What to expect from Storm Skills Training
In everything we do, we strive to create a safe and inclusive environment for everyone.
We have integrity, and we are a fair, honest, and ethical organisation that people are proud to be associated with. We are committed to excellence and social responsibility, and believe in treating everyone with respect, compassion, and kindness.
By working with us, you'll be part of a community that is committed to supporting our mission and vision towards fewer lives lost to suicide and self-harm.
Working with our team means that you will receive attention and support throughout your experience with us. We take the time to get to know each of our customers and your specific needs to make sure that we provide training sessions that meet your unique requirements.
We’ll work closely with you to ensure that your team are completely satisfied with the training services that we provide.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accredited training
Courses delivered directly by us, including the Train-the-Facilitator and Direct-to-Participant courses, have full Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation with The CPD Certification Service.
Choosing our CPD-accredited courses offers numerous advantages:
- Professional recognition: Enhance your CV with certified training
- Quality assurance: Training meets established professional standards
- Career advancement: Demonstrate ongoing professional development
Expanding our social impact
The success of our training benefits the community in two ways:
- The direct impact of our training on the frontline – enhancing skills and confidence of teams and promoting person-centered collaborative conversations with those in distress and their support network
2. We share our training success: we invest in projects and activities which help to further our mission to reduce the incidence and impact of self-harm and suicide.
What people say about our training:
“I found this course really valuable. I would definitely recommend it. I will be able to use the skills immediately in my work. The person-centred, compassionate approach is very much in keeping with my day to day practice. Specifically, I now feel more confident working with and supporting clients experiencing SH and SI. I now have a clear framework to work from. This was an excellent course. R egarding the format and delivery our facilitator Jez was really clear in his communication and sharing of the content of the course and the feedback he gave was useful and constructive. Thank you Jez! ”
“I found this course very useful. I would highly recommend it to colleagues. I would encourage anyone working with young people who are experiencing self-harm or suicidal ideation to complete this training.”
“The course was excellent. Bianca was extremely supportive of me personally in the delivery of this course. I learnt so many strategies and techniques which I fully will use in my professional role to support individuals and their families. The course was sensitively delivered. The topic is a very hard area to talk about, and of course train others in, but I felt fully supported and felt through her excellent facilitation, that my experience and skills were valued. I would highly recommend this course to other professional in mental health to attend.”
Jenifer-Julie, CPN | Attended Version 5 Storm Skills Training in Self-harm and Suicide Prevention (Adult - Advanced) in June 2024.
"I would recommend this training to other organisations I have personally worked with. I found the facilitators to be very honest, respectful, and compassionate. I have come away from the training more confident in asking those difficult questions about suicide or self-harm while helping someone in distress. This training provided insight into the lived experience of practitioners, which created evidence that the skills used with a young person provide a safe place for a conversation. I plan to incorporate this training into my work, asking the question in a way that young people will understand. Excellent training made very interactive and enjoyable."
Sharon, Residential Social Care Worker | Attended Version 5 Storm Skills Training in Self-harm and Suicide Prevention (Intermediate Pilot - Children and Young Adults - June 2024)Suicide prevention training packages for you and your team
We are passionate about working with you to create a compassionate and skilled workforce to prevent suicide - no matter what size of the organisation.
We want to understand your workforce needs and how we can support you to meet these needs.
Sustainability and best use of funds is at our heart. We want to make sure you chose the option right for your team.
Our courses cater to a wide range of professionals, including:
- Mental health specialists: Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Mental Health Nurses, Social Workers
- Healthcare professionals: General Practitioners (GPs), Nurses, Pharmacists, Psychological Therapists (Counsellors, Psychotherapists, CBT Specialists)
- Social care and community support: Social Workers, Community Support Workers, Case Managers, Youth Workers and Mentors
- Crisis intervention and rehabilitation: Crisis Support Workers, Rehabilitation Counsellors, Addiction Specialists
- Criminal justice professionals: Probation Officers, Facility Staff
- Third-sector and volunteer organisations: Charity Volunteers, Community Outreach Coordinators
- Other professionals with responsibility for safeguarding, or working with complexity and vulnerability
