How can I help a suicidal person

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I currently have someone close to me who has had to deal with a barrage of shit over the last few years. His daily life baseline is difficult. He has spoken of suicidal thoughts. For those of you that have contemplated suicide, how best can I help him? He said he would have been dead a long time ago if it wasn't for his son. I'm scared that he may not have much fight left in him or that one one more bad life incident may tip him over the edge. He is going to try to get an appointment with his gp today. Can anybody recommend a decent counsellor that they have used on this issue in Reading, Newbury, North London or Brentwood?

It's a long shot but does he have any employee assistance schemes in his job? I am going through a free course of counselling sessions for self harm and anxiety through my company employee assistance programme. I'm aware that this is not something everyone is lucky enough to have though.
I'd say going to the GP is the best first step. They will hopefully point him in the right direction. Good luck to him. Having someone who supports him is a big thing too. I have family support and I also have a close friend who I know I can tell exactly how I feel at any given time. The support network is important. It's good to know you're not alone.

Thanks. I'll ask him about employee assistance scheme.

Best thing you can do? Check in with him every day. Just ask what he’s been up to every day, not how he’s feeling, ask him facts he can clearly communicate with you

When suicidal, I am very exhausted about describing my emotional state. It’s a lonely and horrible place but I need interaction and easy to navigate conversation. Deep conversation is just too much but shallow factual conversation all about me and things that are easily discussed are so, so important to feel less lonely and more alive

Let them set the pace for conversation but often initiate conversation starters. Telling you they’re suicidal is a huge help-me flag and they want someone to handhold from a distance back to safety

Does he have a plan? Does he know how he would go about killing himself? If so, is it realistic/feasible? Has he ever hurt himself before?

If you're ever concerned that he may hurt himself imminently, try to get him to A&E. If he refuses to go, or you're not sure where he is but you have reason to believe he is at risk, alert the police.

He sometimes goes AWOL in terms of communication, so hard to know what's going on sometimes. I know I can still obviously contact him so he knows people care. He is in a world of emotional pain at the moment and feels he has messed his life up. He mentioned today being tempted to throw himself off a balcony recently. He feels life has been so hard the last few years and recent events are about to make it even harder. He's right about that - it has been hard and about to get a whole lot harder. I think he's exhausted and lonely and scared. I'm going to try to make some space for him at our place so he has somewhere else to stay if he needs to, but he might not want to. He's also spending a lot of time travelling between work engagements so it's hard for him to have down time. He's running on empty.

He had never self harmed to my knowledge.