David Woods Bartley
A colleague in distress is usually spotted late, if at all. Most managers have never been taught what to say in the moment, and most wellbeing strategies stop at policy and EAP links. The gap between what an organisation claims about mental health and what a line manager can actually do on a Tuesday morning is where real harm happens.
David Woods Bartley is a mental health speaker and suicide prevention educator who helps organisations close the gap between wellbeing policy and the human conversations that keep people safe.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with David Woods Bartley
- Trained in QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) and certified in Mental Health First Aid for adults and youth and in safeTALK. He teaches the three QPR steps directly in his talks, so a manager leaves knowing how to ask the question and make the referral.
- Lived experience of severe depression, a suicide attempt at the Foresthill Bridge, and recovery through electroconvulsive therapy. The story carries the stigma-breaking weight that clinical presenters rarely match.
- Named 2021 Mental Health Champion by the Steinberg Institute, a credential anchored to a recognised advocacy body rather than bureau superlatives.
- Two TEDx talks in active distribution, including “How connection saved my life” on TED.com, which gives programme leads a vetted preview of voice and content before booking.
- Works across corporate, public sector, healthcare, education, and law enforcement audiences. Material has been delivered to sheriff’s departments, universities, and veterans’ health services, not only corporate wellness events.
Biography highlights
- 2021 Mental Health Champion, Steinberg Institute.
- Two TEDx speaker: “How connection saved my life” (TEDxLosGatos) and “How to save a life by sitting down” (TEDxFolsom).
- Trained in QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer); certified in Mental Health First Aid for adults and youth and in safeTALK.
- Member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, International Association for Youth Mental Health, National Storytelling Network’s Healing Story Alliance, and Active Minds.
- Founder and former director of a nationally recognised animal sanctuary that housed up to 100 special-needs animals.
- Designer of “A Lesson in Mental Health,” a whole-school programme that trains students, teachers, and parents in a single day.
Biography
Most organisations have a mental health policy. Very few have trained the average manager to spot a colleague in distress and say something that helps. That gap is the work David Woods Bartley has been doing for over a decade, in more than 800 sessions across the United States, Canada, Central America, and India.
His authority rests on two things that rarely appear together. The first is lived experience: a fight with treatment-resistant depression that took him to the edge of the Foresthill Bridge, and a recovery that included electroconvulsive therapy and the human connection that, in his telling, kept him alive long enough to get there. The second is formal training. He is trained in QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) and certified in Mental Health First Aid for adults and youth and in safeTALK. He teaches the QPR steps in his sessions, so audiences leave with a protocol they can put to use.
The Steinberg Institute named him a 2021 Mental Health Champion. His two TEDx talks, “How connection saved my life” at TEDxLosGatos and “How to save a life by sitting down” at TEDxFolsom, are in active distribution on TED and YouTube. He is a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the International Association for Youth Mental Health, the National Storytelling Network’s Healing Story Alliance, and Active Minds.
What he gives a room is a practical shift. Bartley uses a framework he calls Whole Person Care, animal stories drawn from two decades running a sanctuary, and the blunt honesty of someone who has stood on the bridge. Managers walk out knowing how to sit down next to a colleague who is not alright, ask a direct question, and get them to the next step.
Key speaking topics
- Suicide prevention and the QPR approach
- Workplace mental health literacy
- Psychological safety and supportive conversations
- Human connection and isolation
- Whole Person Care
- Lived experience of depression and recovery
- Mental health education for schools and communities
Ideal for
- CHROs, heads of wellbeing, and people function leaders building mental health capability across a workforce
- Line managers, team leaders, and EAP programme owners responsible for early intervention
- Public sector, healthcare, and education leaders tasked with staff and community mental health
- Law enforcement, first responder, and veterans’ services leadership addressing occupational risk
Audience outcomes
- A named protocol for asking direct questions when a colleague shows signs of distress, drawn from the QPR method.
- Language for starting mental health conversations without fearing the wrong word.
- A clearer sense of what recovery actually looks like, from someone who has been through severe depression and ECT.
- Reduced stigma around suicide as a topic that can be raised at work, supported by specific recognition cues and response steps.
- A self-care and wellness planning frame managers can apply to themselves before applying it to a team.
Talks
A first-person account of the moment on the Foresthill Bridge and the human contact that interrupted it, delivered as a case for connection as a primary suicide prevention mechanism.
Key takeaways:
- Why connection, not information, is the active ingredient in most near-miss recoveries
- How small acts of presence from colleagues and strangers change outcomes
- What hope looks like in practical, observable behaviour
A talk for general audiences on the physical and conversational posture that lets a person in crisis open up.
Key takeaways:
- Why standing over someone shuts conversation down
- The first question to ask, and the one to avoid
- How to stay in the conversation long enough to matter
Three signposts on the road out of severe depression, drawn from Bartley’s own recovery and the Whole Person Care framework.
Key takeaways:
- The difference between understanding, surrender, and acceptance as stages
- How Whole Person Care addresses physical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions together
- What sustained recovery requires beyond the first intervention
A workshop for managers and colleagues who freeze in the moment a mental health conversation opens up.
Key takeaways:
- The phrases that reliably help and the ones that reliably close a conversation
- How to respond to disclosures of suicidal thought without panic
- When and how to hand off to a professional without dropping the person