Extending suicide prevention training to client facing staff resulted in a life saving intervention for a fraud analyst at the Bank of Ireland (BoI), the lender revealed.
Speaking on the first day of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) annual conference, Matt Elliott, chief people officer at the Bank of Ireland, told delegates the bank ran a half day training programme and conference on mental health for its line managers.
Elliott explained the training covered destigmatising mental health but crucially also contained components on suicide prevention.
The training was subsequently rolled out to the bank’s customer facing teams so they could be equipped to deal with customers in need of help.
Sharing her story by way of a video, Roisin MacFarlane, a fraud analyst at the bank, revealed she took a call a week after undergoing the training.
“I noticed something wasn’t being said. I noticed there was a definite silence and I just checked in with the customer,” she said.
“I just asked: ‘Is everything okay? Is there anything else?’ And at that point I think it just triggered it for him. He started telling me his issues.”
MacFarlane added she was so thankful that her training meant she was was equipped to help.
“To have the tools to assist somebody who is in dire straits, who doesn’t know who else to turn to, and to be able to help them was an absolute privilege,” she continued.
“He was quite distressed and felt very alone unfortunately but the call turned it around and there was a good positive outcome on it.
MacFarlane admitted it was a bit frightening at the beginning because she was wondering if the person had any support.
“You have to ask if they are having suicidal thoughts and you have to try and get the person to talk to you, to open up on what the situation is and what support groups they think may have or access to,” she explained.
“It was lovely to recommend something and to talk somebody and say ‘look, there are people out there who care about you. There are people out there who will always love you.'”
And McFarlane added she would definitely recommend others undergo the training,
“It gives you the tools, it equips you, it prepares you for these calls and I would say talk but listen. Listen to the unsaid,” she said.
“Suicide is prevalent in our communities and me, as a mother, I would love to eliminate it and I know I’m only a drop in the ocean but to have support networks in work and these programmes in work just helps.
“Everything is there to help. Please, please do it because you just don’t know when you will get somebody that needs that chat.”