AN INITIATIVE to teach people how to help suicidal debtors will be launched in Ellesmere Port tomorrow (Thursday).

The Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, in collaboration with the Campaign for Awareness of Mental Illness Among Debtors (CAMIAD), is launching its nationwide initiative with a two-day training course at Sycamore House, Ellesmere Port, on July 19 and 20.

Professionals who have face-to-face contact with people in debt will be taught how to recognise if a client has a mental illness problem, how to detect the telltale signs if a client is seriously suicidal and how to ‘signpost’ them to professional psychological and medical help.

One of the key aims of the campaign is to reduce the number of debt-related suicides nationwide.

There will be an opportunity to meet course leader Nigel Crompton, a mental health specialist and head of service development at the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership, and campaign founder Ian Williamson, an insolvency practitioner, as well as the chance to seek comments from the course participants.