The SERIOUS course has been developed by Merseyside Youth Association’s RAISE team, working in partnership with Wirral CAMHS and YPAS. Its development was funded by the Liverpool CDOP (Child Death Overview Panel) in response to growing concerns about the number of children and young people who end up looking to suicide as the only answer to the difficulties they are facing.

There have been thirteen known child deaths associated with suicidal acts/self -harming leading to death across Merseyside during the timeframe 1.4.2008 to 31.12.2014.

This training has been designed to help professionals working with children and young people aged between 10 and 18 to spot the signs of a young person at risk of suicide and, more importantly, to build confidence in professionals to talk openly with young people about suicide.

We were asked to work with the team and their young person participation group to develop a brand that focused on the subject of young people. We used bright, vibrant colour palettes as a way to highlight the serious topics of the course mixed with child-like font choices. It was decided early on that photography was not to be used and that any illustrations would need to be bespoke and stylised.

The project took a month to complete from consultation to hand off.