Rail staff prevent six out of seven suicide attempts

RAIL staff prevented more than 2,000 suicides last year, figures have revealed as the Government urges the public to step in to help as well.

Thousands of rail staff have been trained in life-saving suicide prevention techniques and their interventions meant six people were saved for every life lost.

The Department for Transport is now backing a Samaritans campaign which encourages passengers to trust their instincts and help those in need.

Suggestions include starting a conversation if they see someone looking isolated, withdrawn or standing alone on a platform without boarding a train.

The department said that rail staff had made 2,270 successful interventions in 2018-19 compared with 873 in 2014-15. Last year, 271 people took their lives on the railways.

Since 2010, Network Rail said it has had more than 20,000 staff trained by the suicide prevention charity Samaritans in techniques to help workers intervene if they see people in distress.

The charity said it trained Network Rail staff on how to identify potentially suicidal people and then sensitively approach them to start a conversation.

Staff are taught some of the listening techniques Samaritans’ volunteers use to help people who call its helpline.

One member of staff who received the training, Kelly Holyoake, a train dispatcher at a station in London, saved the life of a man after he dropped a suicide note on the plaftform floor.

She found him standing at the edge of the platform ready to jump when she started talking to him, initially asking him how he was, and then keeping up the conversation until he stood back and walked away from the platform.

The figures have been released as Samaritans launches its “Brew Monday” campaign today to encourage people to talk more openly about their mental health issues.