Delivery: Face-to-face | Duration: 3 hours
Learn how to safely respond to someone in distress or crisis.
Often when our family, friends or colleagues are experiencing times of distress they will confide in us first, before or instead of using a formal support pathway. At work, employees are more likely to seek support from a colleague than a manager.
In these times, it’s important that we have the basic skills and awareness to respond appropriately.
This course will help you develop the knowledge and skills needed to safely and effectively support friends, family, colleagues, and strangers who are in distress or experiencing a crisis.
Following the Lifeline ‘Recognise, Respond, Refer, Self-care’ model, this workshop will help you gain the confidence and practical tools to offer compassionate and helpful support and give you an understanding of how to:
- recognise signs of distress and potential crisis
- respond with empathy and supportive communication
- refer individuals to appropriate professional support when needed
- self-care strategies for bouncing back after tough conversations.
What you will learn:
This course will teach you how to:
- Recognise common signs and symptoms of emotional distress and crises in others.
- Differentiate between offering initial support and acting as a professional counsellor, understanding the limitations of your role.
- Demonstrate active listening skills to build rapport and validate the person's experience.
- Describe appropriate resources and support networks, acting as a guide to connect individuals with available help when needed.
- Demonstrate increased confidence when approaching individuals experiencing emotional distress.
- Demonstrate attunement through communication, conveying empathy and understanding in a supportive and non-judgmental manner.
Presenter - Stuart Schultz (Lifeline Tasmania)
Stuart is a Trainer at Lifeline Tasmania and works part-time for an organisation that provides support and engagement for people with disability to engage in community sport and recreation.
Stuart has a particular interest in working with young people and people with disability, introducing holistic approaches to wellbeing, and giving people the confidence and skills to be able to support someone without being an expert or trying to solve their problems.
Keeping his training environment fun and relaxed, Stuart aims to ensure his training style is relatable to a wide range of audiences.
Who is this course for?
This course is for anyone who would like to be able to safely and effectively support friends, family, work colleagues and strangers who are in distress or experiencing a crisis.
Upcoming sessions
We currently have no sessions scheduled for this course.
Not seeing the session dates you want?
You can register your interest in another session below or request an in-house session just for your team.
If anything raises issues for you or someone around you, you can reach out to the following services:
- Your agency’s Employee Assistance Program provider
- Lifeline – 13 11 14
- Beyond Blue – 1300 224 636
- 1800RESPECT – 1800 737 732
- Suicide Call Back Service – 1300 659 467
- MensLine Australia – 1300 789 978
- If you are experiencing an emergency: call 000