At the beginning of November, the 20,000th delegate within the rail industry was trained on the Managing Suicidal Contacts (MSC) course delivered by Samaritans since 2010.
The award-winning training provides individuals with the skills and confidence in how to recognise and support a potentially suicidal person on the network, by approaching someone in distress.
The percentage of suicides in Britain that occur on the rail network has continued to fall from 4.9 per cent in 2014 to 4.2 per cent last year. In that same period, the industry has recorded a rise in the number of life-saving interventions year on year from 577 to 2,270, which in part can be attributed to the bespoke training programme.
In support of the rail industry, the Times published an article on achievement of training 20,000 (not 200,000 as printed) staff and stakeholders, which can be read at: The Times