Putting their necks on the line to save the suicidal

Bag in hand, travelling alone, he stands at the doorway of the British Transport Police office, tucked away at the back of the station, where moments earlier he rang its bell and waited patiently for someone to answer.

It was a desperate cry for help, perhaps the last he was prepared to make before taking his own life.

"We brought him in and sat him down," explains Pc Ian Graham, leaning back in a chair, just metres from where the man had arrived earlier this year. "We asked him why, how had this come about?"

Pc Graham, 49, speaks confidently about the steps he and his colleague Pc Stuart Cowan then took, talking calmly with the man, who had arrived from the south of England, before he eventually agreed that a trip to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital was what he really needed.

"It took about an hour," Pc Graham says, recalling the incident in May this year.

"Eventually we got his confidence. In fact, he wanted us to go with him to the hospital in the end and be there when he was assessed by a psychiatrist, which we did."

The man, it transpired, was suffering from serious health issues, normally controlled by medication which, for some reason, he'd neglected to take.

Without the officers' calm handling of the situation and overwhelming professionalism, he may well have gone on to take his own life, perhaps on a rail track at Waverley or possibly elsewhere in the city.

In reality, they probably saved his life.

Yet if the same man had walked into their office a few months earlier, they would have felt pretty clueless as to what to do, possibly nervously skirting around the suicide issue in the vain hope they could perhaps persuade him to go to hospital, or at least be seen by a doctor at the station.

Speaking as part of national Suicide Prevention Week, Pc Graham and Pc Cowan are the first officers to have undergone new suicide prevention training, teaching them how to cope with such alarming incidents, unfortunately a routine part of their work at Waverley.

Pc Graham reveals that, in his 30-year career in the force, he had never before been fully trained in how to approach someone threatening to take their own life, for just like in most parts of society, suicide has been something of a taboo in police circles. "It's very hard to approach someone in this situation," Pc Graham sighs. "We may be policemen, but we are also just human beings."

Their training in March was the brainchild of Sandra de Munoz, the Choose Life co-ordinator for Edinburgh City Council, who put the policemen through their paces at a series of workshops at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

"Before the training, the 'S' word was a taboo in the force," explains Pc Cowan, 28. "We were actually frightened to say the word. Frightened in case by saying it we planted the idea in the person's mind to actually do it.

"Now we have the confidence to approach people and break down the barriers that are there. I cannot speak more highly of what we have been taught."

Every day around two people commit suicide in Scotland. The British Transport Police have dealt with 13 in the last year alone across the country, and numerous attempts have been made at Waverley.

According to the Choose Life team, the mere mention of the word "suicide" will not lead someone to kill themselves, rather act as a relief.

"It will allow them to talk about their feelings before they have a chance to act on them," explains Sandra de Munoz. "Most people who are suicidal don't want to end their life, they only want to end the pain, and often talking about it can be the best way to do that."

It is often the case at Waverley station.

"Most people who arrive here want to draw attention to themselves," says Pc Graham.

"This is a very busy, public place and they want to be seen and to be helped.

"Some will stand near the track sides, others will go to the far corners of the station. Often the public notify us of a sighting, sometimes it is a train driver."

More often than not, and particularly since their recent training, Pc Cowan and Pc Graham can confidently approach someone in this situation, build up a relationship and trust, and give them the help they desperately seek.

"You cannot save everybody though," adds Pc Graham, eyes darting to the floor of his office.

As with all "non-suspicious deaths" at the station - to use official police terminology - the officers are usually the first at the scene, witnessing what can often be gruesome, bloody and disturbing finds that can lead to offers of support from the police counselling team.

"We get into police mode," Pc Graham says. "We do our job as we have one to do, treating the person in question with the dignity they deserve. They are someone's loved one.

"It's not nice and nobody wants to do it, but it's our job."

Passers-by stare as they make their way through the concourse, their stature a dominating presence, particularly for those who may be thinking about trying to dodge a fare or light up a cigarette illegally on a platform.

Of course, dealing with suicides forms just a small part of their daily job, with fights, lost children, accidents and drunken behaviour taking up far more time.

They are quick to shrug off suggestions that the suicide aspect of their job is one to fear. Would they not rather be patrolling Princes Street for shoplifters?

"We do this because we are human beings, not just because we are police," says PC Cowan.

"We genuinely do want to make a difference."

HERE TO HELP

PEOPLE who have lost loved ones to suicide are being offered support from a newly-established Edinburgh group, run by the charity Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide.

It is led by Jacqueline Walton, whose husband committed suicide five years ago.

"Talking to someone was very helpful for me as I felt like I wasn't the only one in my situation," she says.

"There's no 'how to' guide for things like this, or when and what to tell your children, so it's good to get advice from people who have been through it themselves."

For more information, visit www.uk-sobs.org.uk or call 0779 526 5231. For advice, call Samaritans on 08457 909090 or Breathing Space on 0800 838587.