Interviews

Consortium launch

by Mark Rowe

The City of London on Monday evening, May 30 will see the launch of a Security Consortium for the Prevention of Suicide. Ahead of that day, we speak to the founder, Vicki Vidler, pictured.

The invited speakers for the evening show the range of those interested, and the high quality of interest. They’re from British Transport Police (BTP); from Middlesex University; from the Security Institute; Chris Middleton, from the contract guarding sector. And from the charity the Samaritans, Prudence Malinki.

Vicki sees the consortium as having a two-fold purpose: to inform the security industry internally about the part it can play (and indeed is playing) in preventing suicide; and in linking the industry with others in the field, including specialists. For example, despite progress from the days when suicide was a crime, a stigma can still be attached to suicide. It means that we ought to be careful in the words we use about suicide, so as not to stigmatise it, whether online or in mainstream media reports.

The security industry has to take particular care, as Vicki has found from some conversations. Understandably, some people may feel that suicide prevention is a matter for the public health professionals – why involve ‘security’; because aren’t they there to prevent crime? Vicki’s point there is that security is there to protect life, and vulnerable people.

As the BTP speakers at the launch evening suggests, railways are working to prevent suicide. Samaritans have trained more than 25,000 people who work on the railways in their ‘managing suicidal contacts’ course; and it so happened that the 25,000th was a security officer, as featured in the June print edition of Professional Security.

Much good work, then, is going on. You typically find in the BSIA or ACS Pacesetters officer of the year awards (at Windsor tomorrow, incidentally), among the outstanding acts are those by officers who intervene – including at some risk to themselves – to stop someone in distress from taking their own life. What (so far as anyone can tell) the private security sector has not had yet is any forum for the sharing of good practice (including work by government departments on a cross-government strategy), and the making of relationships.

The event is free to attend; register on eventbrite.

More in the July print edition of Professional Security magazine.

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