"A day in the life of

Stephen Malloy from Lifelink "

My name is Stephen Malloy and I’m the men’s project worker for Lifelink, a suicide/crisis intervention and self harm reduction project that’s part of Royston stress centre and is based in north Glasgow. Our service aims to offer immediate emotional and therapeutic support to men and women who are in crisis and may be thinking about or planning to kill themselves, and to men and women who self harm and who may be looking to reduce or stop this behaviour (although we also support people who simply want to come to understand self harm and do not wish to stop). We offer support and training to clients around developing better coping skills, provide training around suicide intervention (ASIST), and look to refer clients to other services should that be required.

My day to day consists of arriving at work around 9am, checking for any messages that have been left during the night on our voicemail system, looking at the referrals that have came in from other organisations, then meeting clients for hourly one to one sessions.

One of the main parts, and I suppose most crucial elements of my role is quite simply to listen. Many of the guys with whom I engage find it very difficult to discuss the thing that they feel are causing them great emotional pain. Issues like debts, unemployment, broken relationships, alcohol and drug problems, homelessness, isolation and loneliness are often present in their current situation. Sometimes issues from their past like childhood sexual abuse, mental and emotional abuse, neglect, family breakdown, bullying etc may be continuing to cause pain. Some of the men also have mental health problems which contribute to how they feel. I listen without judgement, and do what I can to offer support. Of course some guys don’t have any of the stuff I’ve mentioned to deal with but still have suicide on their minds, and that’s the thing, suicide and thoughts about suicide can affect anyone at any time of their lives. Sure, we can say that certain groups are more at risk, but for me in my role it’s not about the groups, it’s about the individual who’s sitting in front of you. Suicide is everyone’s problem, and everyone can play a part in making their community that bit safer, if only we allow ourselves to talk about it openly.

I usually finish work at about 5pm, except for Wednesday when we offer a drop in service till 9pm. My typical Tuesday/Thursday sees me then delivering jogging sessions to our guys (and some others from the community) between 6pm and 8pm at Petershill park sports complex in Springburn. (there’s the plug!!) Most of the people who know me know how passionate I am about running, and for me anyway, it has to be one of the best forms of stress relief there is. The guys taking part really enjoy it too and will of course be completing the MHFS 10k in June. We offer other activities too, so for more information have a look at our website. If after reading this you feel you would like to speak to me or anyone from Lifelink, don’t hesitate to call.

Stephen Malloy

For more information about Lifelink's work go to:

http://www.lifelink.org.uk/