Wellness Coalition of Rural Linn County held Question/Persuade/Refer (QPR) training at the Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center Thursday, Sept. 25. September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and QPR is a training that helps ready people to be ready to talk with friends and loved ones on the topic.

“Part of why so many people are able to survive heart attacks well before first responders arrive is there are millions who have been trained on CPR in some capacity,” said Kassy Rice, director with Wellness Coalition of Rural Linn County. “That’s the goal we have with QPR as well, to get more people comfortable and know what to do in situations or be able to help refer friends to the proper resources.”

It’s a skill that the more people who know the process, the more suicide deaths are reduced.

Rice said that people who are depressed or are considering suicide often exhibit some warning signs that something is up or bothering them, and just talking about what they’re going through can be enough to get them to deal with some of the psychological pain they are experiencing.

During the first part of the training, Rice cleared up common myths about suicide.

Myth number 1 is that no one can stop a suicide.

“If people are in crisis and are able to get the help they need, they can be saved,” Rice said.

Myth number 2 was that asking someone about suicide will make them angry.

Rice said asking someone about if they have plans lowers anxiety and opens up communication, which helps lower the risks they will attempt suicide.

“They can feel relief that people have noticed something’s wrong,” Rice said.

Myth number three was only experts can prevent suicide.

“Suicide prevention is everyone’s business,” Rice said. “And anyone can help prevent the tragedy of suicide.”

Myth number four was that people contemplating suicide keep that to themselves.

“Most people who consider communicate their intent sometime during the week preceding their attempt,” Rice said.

Rice said if you ever hear anyone talking about suicide, take the claim seriously.

“There are behavioral cues or situational cues that can help determine where someone is in their crisis point,” Rice said.

Myth number six was that once a person decides to complete a suicide, nothing will stop them.

Rice said any action can and has saved lives in the past.

In the question part of training, Rice said there are direct and indirect cues a person might make. A direct cue would be mentioning their intention of suicide. Indirect may be using language like they’re tired of living or just can’t keep going on.

Some other direct cues are them starting to put their affairs in order or giving away prized possessions to other people.

Others include more drug or alcohol abuse, unexplained anger, aggression or irritability.

Significant life changes like losing a job, losing a major relationship, moving from one town to another, death of a spouse or loved one (especially by suicide), diagnosis of a serious or terminal illness or loss of financial security are significant factors on if someone is considering suicide.

The most important part of the first part of the training is asking someone the question on if they are considering suicide or not.

“You want to have this discussion alone or in a private setting, and allow the person to talk freely and give plenty of time for them to talk,” Rice said.

Without having a time constraint, a person is likely to feel heard and that you care about them and are interested in what’s best for them.

“If you can’t ask the question about if they intend to harm themselves, find someone who can,” Rice said.

The next portion of the training is persuading them to seek help that they need and that they are a valued person in your life.

Rice said the persuasion part of the process can take the longest.

“Just because you asked if they intended to hurt themselves, doesn’t mean they aren’t going to do that just because they were asked,” Rice said. “We have to help them find reasons to stay alive, to identify their slivers of hope, listening to their problems. It’s this part where active listening is incredibly important.”

Rice said suicide isn’t the problem, it’s just the solution this person has identified as a resolution to their perceived problem.

After some time with persuading, you can start working to refer them to resources that can help.

The first best option when referring someone to help is actively taking them directly to someone who can help them. The second best option is getting that friend to commit to getting help and making arrangements to do that. The third best option is giving them a card to resources locally to seek help on their own.

“Any willingness to accept help at some time, even if it is at a future date, that’s a good outcome,” Rice said. “You can not control what happens tomorrow or next week. What you can control is how you made them feel.”

The third part of the training was walking through the referral process. Locally, that can be done by calling 988 or 911, depending on the situation. Calling 911 should be done if the person is an immediate threat to themselves or others. Calling 988 is something a friend can do with the person in mental health crisis to make sure they get the proper resources coming to assist them.

Some situations it’s removing items they said they were thinking of using to harm themselves, like taking the prescriptions they’ve been stockpiling or convincing them to hand over the weapon they may have thought of using.

Rice said the one thing never do is promise to call or follow up with someone in those situations and then never do that, as it feeds back to their belief about the world.

If people have questions or want to participate in training themselves for QPR, contact Kassy Rice at [email protected].