[Applied suicide intervention skills training workshop].

This article discusses the benefits and limitations of applied suicide intervention skills training (ASIST), a two-day intensive, interactive and practice-dominated workshop designed to help caregivers recognise and estimate risk and learn how to intervene in case of immediate risk of suicide. It could appropriately be compared to training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The workshop sensitises participants to attitudes and presents a model for suicide intervention; it is flexible and employs learning aids and audiovisual material in order to encourage a high level of involvement. A growing body of evidence from assessments suggests that the workshop enhances caregivers' sense of readiness for suicide intervention and their actual level of skills for that role. ASIST is a standardized learning experience that uses an effective implementation strategy through which local professionals are trained as instructors. It was developed by LivingWorks Education in Canada in the 1980s. In Norway, Vivat, a training programme originating in the National Suicide Prevention Plan, is in charge of implementation of the workshop and training of instructors.