Poster Presentation National Suicide Prevention Conference 2025

Holyoake in consultation with the agricultural sector have created a ‘fit for purpose’ full day professional learning opportunity in mental health literacy and suicide prevention with accompanying sustainable resources to ensure that trained participants have a ready reference guide available at all times.

Modules covered:

• Understanding the impacts of mental ill-health and situational distress, plus strategies that support recovery, through a sector specific Mental Health & Wellbeing Continuum tool outlining the domains of Thriving, Healthy, Surviving, Struggling through to Crisis. 
• De-escalation techniques and communication strategies
• Introduction to suicide awareness/prevention
• L.A.N.D.S. - practical step by step tool to support clients in distress. Key competency is assisting participants to determine levels of psychological distress and risk, distribute appropriate information on supports and referral pathways.
• Professional Wellbeing – practical strategies to minimise the negative impacts when supporting our clients and ways to maintain a healthy work/life balance to minimise the risk of burnout, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma through self-care and self-investment.
• Links to Support Services, Helplines, Resources, Websites & Apps

The focus of the training is to upskill client-facing agribusiness professionals to be able to communicate more effectively with clients who are experiencing situational distress and have the knowledge and competence to provide them with helpful resources along with information on referral pathways to support. The training has been strategically designed to give participants the skills and confidence to identify a client’s level of psychological distress and be able to provide supportive resources and information on pathways to support. In essence, being the conduit between their clients and the support they require. In addition, the training gives participants the skills to effectively debrief after a critical incident, improve their communication skills.   Better skilled, empowered and knowledgeable employees will be more effective in their roles and have longevity in the industry that they are passionate about.

Quote for participant “I just wanted to express my thanks for the excellent course I attended.  Your professionalism & compassion can’t be understated. It was always going to be a tough day for me, but you made the journey comfortable & for that I am grateful”

100% of the participants that have undertaken AgriBalance training have said they would recommend it to others within the Agricultural sector as it combines mental health / suicide prevention literacy along with rural experience and an understanding of their profession and the agricultural industry.