GREENFIELD — Colleen Moore wanted to know how often to keep checking in when someone struggling is on her mind.
Moore, a volunteer with The Landing Place, a youth-focused support group, wondered, if someone disclosed they were thinking of killing themselves, how many times should she reach out to the person? What if she annoyed them?
How to keep someone from attempting suicide, and how to best assist the individual until they can be seen by a medical professional, was the topic presented on Wednesday at Hancock Regional Hospital to nearly 50 people, including teachers, pastors, chaplains and hospital personnel. The training program, called Question, Persuade, Refer, is meant to serve a similar purpose as CPR, officials said: to keep the person alive until a doctor can help them.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryFour community stakeholders in Hancock County are now certified to provide QPR Training: Erika Bruggeman, Hancock 365 congregational network navigator; Amanda Everidge, the hospital’s healthy community coordinator; Amanda Hinkle, the hospital’s system of care coordinator; and Kim Hall, executive director of Hancock County Mental Health Partners. The women worked to become certified in the suicide prevention training curriculum in response to legislation passed this year by the Indiana General Assembly requiring all teachers from fifth through 12th grade to receive QPR training, Everidge said.
The leaders have reached out to county schools in Hancock County and are working to arrange training for teachers and staff, Everidge said; they are planning to train teachers in the Muncie Community Schools Corp. early next month.
Bruggeman, who led the afternoon session of some 26 individuals in the lower-level Bobby Keen classroom at Hancock Regional Hospital, said the role of a person trained in QPR is intervention.
“We are keeping people alive until someone else can care for them,” she said. “It’s not intended to be a form of counseling or treatment. It is intended to offer hope to a suicidal individual through positive interaction.”
Those who participated in the training on Wednesday took a survey before and after the two-hour training session asking them to rate their knowledge on the topics of national and local suicide rates, warning signs someone is considering suicide, ways to ask if someone is considering suicide, ways to persuade them to get help and how to identify resources and refer someone to the next steps of suicide prevention.
Bruggeman shared statistics at the national, state and local level.
She said while suicide is in the top 10 leading causes of death for people of all ages across the United States, it is the second-highest cause of death for American youth, just behind accidental death, Bruggeman said.
Question
She said asking someone if they have plans to attempt suicide lowers their risk of impulsive acts.
“Suicide is the most preventable type of death,” she said. “Positive interaction with someone who is suicidal can stop them from attempting.”
Bruggeman offered tips to help people ask the question, are you considering suicide, which can be awkward or uncomfortable to ask, she said.
They included:
If a person is showing warning signs, don’t wait to ask
If they’re reluctant to talk, be persistent
Arrange to talk alone in a private setting
Allow the person to speak freely
Give plenty of time
Have resources ready to share
She shared different ways to ask, from more indirect lines of questioning, like, “Have you been unhappy lately?” to the more direct “Are you thinking about suicide?”
How someone phrases the question is less important than the fact that they step up and ask, she said.
Persuade
The next step in the QPR process is persuading the individual not to harm themselves, and to get help, Bruggeman said.
She encouraged the trainees to be empathetic and not rush to judgment when helping someone who is feeling suicidal.
Some phrases she offered included, “Will you go with me to get help?” and “Please promise not to kill yourself while we find you some help.”
She encouraged teachers and other professionals to know their workplace policies, to help them follow the proper protocol.
Refer
Referring a person having suicidal thoughts can include anything from taking a student to the school counselor, or helping a friend or family member to set up an appointment with a counselor or psychiatrist, she said.
Suicidal people often believe they cannot be helped, and for that reason, the best referral is taking the person directly to someone who can help, she said.
The next best thing is getting a commitment from them to accept help, then personally making those arrangements; the third-best option is to give them referral information and try to get a good faith commitment from the individual not to attempt suicide before they can be seen.
She also shared a story of a local woman who died by suicide earlier this year. The story, provided by her family, told what they knew of the hours leading up to her death.
The woman, Monica, died April 20 of this year, Bruggeman said. According to the account from her mother, she realized she was feeling suicidal nearly a week beforehand and reached out to friends, family, her therapist and several hospitals.
On the day of her death, she went to her therapist’s office without an appointment and got a list of hospitals where she could be admitted for suicidal ideation. She made arrangements for someone to watch her pets, then called two hospitals, Bruggeman said. Personnel from each hospital said they would call her back.
“She phoned her dearest friend and said, ‘No one cares, not even the hospital,’” Bruggeman read.
Monica’s family wanted to share her story in the hopes that people taking the QPR training would step up and prevent it from happening to others, Bruggeman said.
“I’m grateful her mother allowed us to share this story,” she said.
Bruggeman encouraged the people taking the training to be vigilant and take warning signs seriously.
“Almost all efforts to persuade someone to live instead of attempting suicide will be met with relief,” she said. “You have to let the person know, ‘You’re not alone.’”
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36,065: deaths attributed to suicide in the U.S. in 2008
44,965: deaths attributed to suicide in the U.S. in 2016
1: suicide takes place every 12 minutes in the U.S.
123: suicides completed in the U.S. each day
5,723: people age 15 to 24 who die by suicide every year in the U.S.
1 in 5: youths report having thoughts of suicide
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