The team at Cycle Against Suicide are delighted to announce our autumn training dates for our ‘Community Buddy’ training Programme.

This training programme is our community-focused positive mental health initiative and is free for anyone volunteering within their community.

Full details including registration are available at: https://www.cycleagainstsuicide.com/register-to-become-community-buddy/

Dates for Autumn 2023 – 4 evenings 7-10pm over 2 consecutive weeks: 

Option 1:

September 2023: Wed 20th and Thurs 21st & Mon 25th and Tues 26th

Option 2:

November 2023: Tues 21st and Wed 22nd & Tues 28th and Wed 29th

Reminder: all 4 training evenings must be attended in order to complete the training. 

Training to become a Community Buddy is through our Peer-Support Wellbeing Programme. Training is free of charge and is delivered via Zoom.

This training is centered around a structured but supportive conversation in a safe and non-judgmental space.  It allows an individual to discuss how they are coping or not coping and working together with a trained peer-mentor to co-produce ways of moving forward to overcome the challenges.

Participants on the course will learn about:

• the impact of mental health problems and how to recognise more complex symptoms
• the assessment of stress levels using a structured schedule and how to manage distressed individuals
• motivational counselling skills, which encourage individuals to seek professional help if needed
• helping individuals build resilience to anxiety through managing challenging situations in positive ways

Participants on our Peer-Support Wellbeing programme are instructed on how stress and mental health problems can affect individuals. They are trained in the use of a structured interview schedule to ascertain whether individuals might be experiencing significant levels of distress and on how to practically manage distressed individuals. Participants are also trained to mentor individuals to take positive resilience enhancing actions, such as positive coping. They are trained on how to recognise more complex symptoms requiring professional interventions.  They develop skills based on the principal of motivational interviewing to encourage individuals to speak with a health care professional where necessary.

Cycle Against Suicide – Community-Buddy-poster-Autumn 2023 – pdf