A suicide prevention group has recruited hairdressers and barbers to help spot vulnerable people who might be contemplating taking their own lives.
With World Suicide Awareness Day taking place later this week, an organisation set up to counter rising suicide rates in Northern Ireland has established a training course for hairdressing salons and barber shops across the province.
Staff at salons from Coleraine to north Belfast, which has seen a spate of suicides in recent years, are being asked to look out for customers who appear deeply depressed or voice thoughts about taking their own lives.
The north Belfast-based Public Initiative for the Prevention of Suicide and Self-harm (Pips) is holding a specialist training programme on 27 September for hair salon staff and barbers.
Philip McTaggart, Pips founder and chairperson, said the idea came about after volunteers in the Duncairn Gardens area of the city relayed stories they had heard while at the hairdresser. "It seems that when someone sits down in the chair to have their hair cut they will talk about anything, including things that they might feel uncomfortable speaking of to those they know," he said. "But they will open up to a stranger who is standing over them cutting their hair. So we went around various salons and asked staff about what sort of problems in their lives their customers talked about. What the staff told us was quite shocking."
McTaggart said the scheme involves training staff to notice when someone is vulnerable so they can suggest counselling and pass on cards and leaflets from organisations that might help. "The whole scheme is discreet. The leaflets are not spread about the salons like copies of Vogue or Cosmopolitan. If the scheme saves one life, it will be worth it," he said.
One of the first salons to join the project is Ben Thomas on Belfast's Oldpark Road. Its owner, Nichola McWilliams, said she supported it because she came from the north of the city where there has been a dramatic rise in suicides over the past decade.
"A lot of our clients have been personally affected, losing family members and friends," she said.
McWilliams said the public would be astonished if they realised how open people are when they sit down in front of the mirror to have their hair cut. "They know that you are not going to judge them," she said. "You don't know that much about them and for some strange reason they seem to feel more secure." She had often had male clients who would "talk about ending it all to escape their problems".
Several hairdressing academies, including one based in Coleraine with 300 students, are joining the scheme this autumn. McTaggart said that training would also be given to drivers from the West Belfast Taxi Association.
"Any business where there is intimate contact between workers and the public should become aware as to how to spot those most vulnerable," he said. "We intend to run this programme ultimately across the whole of Ireland. It could be a model for other suicide awareness groups in Britain and beyond."
Ireland has the fourth highest youth suicide rate in Europe, with more than 700 people taking their own lives last year. McTaggart established Pips in 2003 after his son, Pip, killed himself and he discovered that there was little help available for families in his situation.
