Welcome to the sixth lesson in this unit on mental wellbeing, where we will be developing our understanding of suicidal thoughts.

I'm Mrs. Harris, and in this lesson we're going to be exploring the causes and symptoms of suicidal thoughts, and what support is available.

For this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper, and a pen.

I would like to stress at this point that if this is a sensitive topic to you, we recommend checking with a trusted adult before starting, or doing the lesson with a trusted adult nearby.

This is what our lesson is going to look like today.

You should already have completed the intro quiz.

I'm now going to recap our previous lesson.

We looked at post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and what causes it, finishing off with looking at what support could help people living with this condition.

In this lesson, we're going to explore what the causes and symptoms of suicidal thoughts are.

Once we have learned this, we are going to investigate what support is available for suicidal thoughts and how to support others.

At the end of the lesson, there will then be an exit quiz for you to reflect on what we have learned.

I would like to start by reminding you that if this is a sensitive topic, then you should either not continue with this lesson or speak to a trusted adult, or have them nearby while you continue.

I'm reminded of our lesson two when we talked about the stigma surrounding mental health and I feel that one of the biggest areas that people are afraid of talking about is suicide.

Some people are misinformed and wrongly assume that talking about suicide might increase the likelihood that someone may take their own life.

This is not the case.

We need to talk about having suicidal thoughts and examine ways to get support and support others so that we can turn around this statement.

Many suicides are preventable and talking about it openly and reaching out to those who need our support needs to be encouraged.

One of the coping strategies we have mentioned is sharing our worries with others, and this is crucial when we discuss issues surrounding suicidal thoughts.

So what is your reaction to this statement? Is it shocking? Did you already know this? Why do you think this is? Does it instil anger inside of you? Is it upsetting to you? Please take some time to think about this statement and write your ideas down in your book or on your piece of paper.

Here are our keywords for this lesson.

Suicide is the act or an instance of taking one's own life by choice and intentionally.

Before the Suicide Act of 1961, it was a crime to take one's life and anyone who attempted and failed could be prosecuted and imprisoned, or the families of those who succeeded could also potentially be prosecuted.

Suicidal thoughts are deep, intense thoughts where the only perceived solution is suicide.

I must stress the word perceived.

It is the person's feeling that this is the only solution.

Asking someone if they feel suicidal or are planning to end their life may not feel like the right thing to do.

But in fact, professionals do recommend asking direct questions about suicide.

It supports what we have learned previously in this topic about sharing worries and feelings.

Mental illness is a health condition involving change in emotion, thinking or behaviour.

It is different to mental health.

Everyone has mental health just like they have physical health.

However, not everyone has a mental illness.

A mental illness will be diagnosed with medical criteria.

We are now going to talk about why some people might have suicidal thoughts and what signs to look out for in order to fully support a friend or family member who might be having suicidal thoughts.

This is your task.

What might cause someone to have suicidal thoughts? We should show empathy when completing this task.

We talked about the need for empathy during lesson two of this unit.

If this is a sensitive topic or task for you, you might want to express your thoughts as pictures rather than writing.

It is entirely your choice but we need to spend time thinking about this topic in order to fully understand it and then apply our knowledge to either our own situation or those of others around us.

Our main independent task today involves using information we gather throughout this lesson.

So please make sure to engage with the tasks and make notes in your book or on your piece of paper.

Pause the video to complete this task and then resume when you are finished.

What might cause someone to have suicidal thoughts? Do your answers match mine? I would like you to add extra information to your answers to this task, to further develop the ideas you had in relation to this task or to challenge any misconceptions you may have had.

Remember we said that a mental illness is diagnosed with medical criteria.

Those suffering from mental illness that affects the way they think and process emotions are more at risk of suicidal thoughts.

Self-esteem is the opinion we have of ourselves.

Positive self-esteem would be when we consider ourselves to be happy and content and generally feeling positive about ourselves and our interactions with the world.

Low self-esteem is when we might see ourselves in a more negative way, we may be more critical of ourselves.

Using drugs or alcohol, especially when we are upset, can affect the way we feel and perhaps make the negative feelings we might feel about ourselves feel amplified.

Feeling under pressure from family and friends can affect our self-esteem and self-worth, and again, cause us to have more negative thoughts about the world.

We saw in lesson one of this unit that anxiety is a feeling of unease, like a worry or fear, that can be mild or severe.

When anxiety becomes a problem, our worries can be out of proportion with relatively harmless situations.

It can feel more intense or overwhelming and interfere with our everyday lives and relationships and may cause someone to have suicidal thoughts.

Let's recap for a moment.

Mental illness is not the same as mental health.

Is this true or false? Did you get it right? Everyone has mental health but not everyone has a mental illness.

These are all examples of warning signs or symptoms that someone who is having suicidal thoughts might exhibit.

It is worth pointing out that it is usually a combination of these factors.

There are two parts of the task relating to this slide.

Do you remember I let you know that we would be completing an independent task later on.

Well, you should make some notes on the warning signs that you can see in this table.

Maybe pick out five as an example.

The second part of the task is to pick out what you consider to be the red flag warning signs.

By red flag I mean the most worrying warning signs that someone could be having suicidal thoughts.

You may wish to pause the video while you complete these two tasks.

Does your list match mine? These red flag warning signs are symptoms that we couldn't ignore.

It would be a sign that we should if we were able to offer support to someone.

We will be looking at how we can do this later on in this lesson.

I should also say at this time that sometimes there are no signs at all that someone is having suicidal thoughts.

That is the reason that we should try to break down the stigma surrounding mental health and encourage people to talk about their thoughts much more readily.

Also, if a person self-harms, this is not always a sign that they are having suicidal thoughts.

Self-harm is a harmful way to cope with emotional pain, intense anger, and frustration, not necessarily a sign that someone wants to end their life.

Here's Nicky.

Nicky's dad died when he was quite young.

His mum has remarried and he gets on well with his stepdad but it has moments where he gets caught up in his grief.

This leads to periods of sadness and his mum has wondered if he might be suffering from depression.

Nicky is gay and comfortable with his sexuality but still trying to gain the confidence to share this with his friends and family.

He wonders if they might think differently about him.

This worries him quite regularly.

In fact, Nicky is beginning to find it hard to get to sleep at night and he has lost his appetite.

The other night when he couldn't sleep, Nicky found himself searching for information about suicide on the internet.

He stopped himself after a short time but he is beginning to worry about his dark thoughts.

This is your task.

What warning signs are there that Nicky might be having suicidal thoughts? Look over this scenario on the previous slide again and identify the warning signs that we've already learned during this lesson.

Pause the video or rewind the video to complete this task, and then resume when you are finished.

Do your answers match mine? Here are some of the warning signs that Nicky could be having suicidal thoughts.

Nicky has experienced a major upsetting event, the loss of his dad, and it seems that he's still working through the grieving process.

He's also sad quite often.

His mum thinks he could be depressed.

We've talked about the fact that depression is quite common and not necessarily a sign of suicidal thoughts on its own but there're other warning signs Nicky is exhibiting.

Nicky feels under pressure from his friends and family.

He's used the internet to search about suicide.

This is one of the red flag warning signs we've talked about previously in this lesson.

He also has trouble eating and sleeping.

Again, a common symptom of everyday stresses but coupled with some of the other warning signs, we should not ignore this symptom.

When you completed the previous task, you may even have begun to think about the support you could have offered Nicky.

We are going to look at this in more detail now.

So how can you support someone with suicidal thoughts? Listen without judgement.

Stay calm and listen to what they have to say.

You might be shocked, upset, or frightened, but it is important not to overreact.

Stay calm.

It will possibly have taken a lot of courage to talk to you so take the time to listen.

Take them seriously.

Assume they are telling the truth and that they may well act on their thoughts.

They have taken the courage to talk to you so encourage them to be honest about how they are feeling.

Show empathy.

It might be hard to do this and you won't have all the answers so try and encourage them to confide in a trusted adult, maybe a parent or teacher, so that they can widen their support network.

Give them time.

It may take time for them to fully talk about their feelings so don't rush them.

Just show them that you are listening.

Break down the stigma.

Talk about the S word.

It is okay to use the word suicide or suicidal when talking to them.

It is better to be direct than to dodge around the main issue.

Get helped yourself.

Supporting someone you know with suicidal thoughts is a big responsibility and it might be that you need to get support from someone as well as to talk over your experiences.

You could talk to a trusted adult or contact an organisation that deals with this area of mental illness.

Papyrus are particularly experienced in this area.

There is a slide at the end of this lesson with contact details for this charity and other points of support.

What questions should you ask someone with suicidal thoughts? You should ask open questions that require more than a yes or no answer, questions that encourage someone to share their thoughts and feelings.

The first box gives some examples of sentence starters that tend to lead to questions that require more than just a yes or no answer.

The second box gives examples of some of the endings of questions that could be appropriate to use in a conversation with someone experiencing suicidal thoughts.

You're going to use some of these when we revisit Nicky's situation.

We've read through this already.

So I'd like you to pause the video to familiarise yourself with this scenario again.

This is your task.

What open questions could you ask Nicky to encourage him to share his thoughts? Use the question prompts from the previous slide to make a list of questions you could ask Nicky to help support him with his feelings.

Pause the video to complete this task, and then resume when you are finished.

Do your answers match mine? All of these are examples of open questions.

Look at your list.

Do you need to change any of them slightly to make them more open questions? Do you need to borrow any of mine to add to your list? Feel free to pause the video if you need to work on these or continue.

Where can some someone with suicidal thoughts get support? Talking to a trusted adult.

If someone has been having suicidal thoughts, it's a good idea for them to talk to someone they trust like a family member, friend, or teacher.

If someone talks to you about their suicidal thoughts, then remember to use open questions and all the advice that we shared previously in this lesson about listening without judgement , giving them time, and showing empathy.

They can speak to their GP.

A good starting point is making a list of things you want to talk about.

This can be how you've been feeling, what you're struggling with, or questions you want to ask.

Writing things down can help you to think about how you're feeling and prepare you for the appointment.

You can take the list with you so you remember what you want to say or hand it to the GP at your appointment.

I mentioned this previously.

Papyrus is a UK based charity dedicated to the prevention of young suicide.

They work really hard to break down the stigma around talking about suicidal thoughts.

They also have a phone line called Hopeline UK.

The number is shown here.

There is also lots of helpful advice on their website.

Young Minds are a UK charity who support young people with their mental health.

They offer a messenger service for those people in crisis and in need of support.

You can text YM to 85258 24 hours a day, seven days a week for support.

The Samaritans offer help over the phone or by email through their website.

They are not just about helping people in crisis but also about supporting people to prevent a crisis.

Childline are a UK charity to help anyone under 19 in the UK with any issue they're going through.

You can contact them through their website or on the phone.

This is your task.

Produce a fact sheet that could be made available in a GP's waiting room.

Include the following: causes and symptoms of suicidal thoughts, support available for someone with suicidal thoughts.

Pause the video to complete this task, and then resume when you are finished.

That brings us to the end of our lesson on suicidal thoughts.

Before you go and complete your exit quiz, I'd like to thank you for engaging with the task and ask you to reflect on today.

Which support website are you going to check out to find out more about suicidal thoughts and how you can support someone? I hope you have acquired some useful information to carry forward with you and allow you to develop your empathy in dealing with anyone you may come across in your life experiencing suicidal thoughts.

I look forward to carrying on our learning in the next lesson in this unit.