McDonalds staff helping to pioneer council suicide prevention strategy

North Lanarkshire council has forged links with fast food staff to help reduce the rate of suicides in Scotland

Partnership working across health and social care is a key element of any mental health policy. But one local authority has set the gold standard by forging links with business and the wider community as part of its suicide prevention strategy.

Staff at McDonalds in North Lanarkshire are being trained in SafeTALK – a suicide alert counselling course normally offered to health and social workers.

The pioneering initiative, which is being held up as a model of good practice, is the result of a partnership between North Lanarkshire local authority, NHS Lanarkshire and the fast food chain.

Every day two people kill themselves in Scotland. High suicide rates, especially among young men north of the border, have prompted the move to break the taboos surrounding suicide and mental ill-health in the community.

For the past 40 years, suicide rates have been 80% higher in Scotland than the rest of the UK and there is widespread recognition that action is needed urgently to address the problem.

A national strategy called “Choose Life” was launched in Scotland in 2002. But it has taken vision and passion and partnership working to extend the suicide prevention strategies into the wider community.

A first step was the launch of the national “See Me” campaign in 2008 in which companies sign a pledge to tackle stigma and challenge the way people think about mental ill-health.

Asda, G4S and members of Motherwell Football Club were just some of the organisations that signed up to the campaign. “It has been very successful,” says Lynne Cruickshank, senior social worker for young adults at North Lanarkshire. “Players from Motherwell Football Club had slogans on their shirts at a match in Europe. The impact was huge.”

Building on the success of that campaign, the council offered SafeTALK training to people working in the community. Each person on the course was given training on supporting people in distress.

“McDonalds is important because a high proportion of staff are under 24 – and it is a place where young people go,” says Cruickshank.

During the training sessions, staff are taught to not to be afraid to ask someone in distress if they are considering suicide.

“If someone admits to suicidal thoughts then we can get them to focus on positive things in their life, before making sure they go to a place of safety,” says Cruickshank.

An evaluation of the suicide prevention scheme in Lanarkshire by the Centre for Men’s Health at Leeds Metropolitan University found the campaigns have helped remove some of the stigma surrounding mental ill-health.

Researchers, led by Dr Mark Robinson, concluded that partnerships with third sector organisations are the best way of engaging hard to reach groups such as unemployed or disconnected young men. Furthermore, Robinson says the approach could be used to “address other sensitive health and social care issues”.

Robinson, who plans to present his findings at a social marketing conference, says further partnerships with consumer or regulatory organisations, particularly private sector drinks manufacturers and retail brands and outlets, could yield benefits.