Tuesday, September 17, 2019
As the school year gets underway, reviewing the need to collaborate across educational and community settings when addressing youth suicide prevention is timely.
Although adults don't often know about it, many Wisconsin youth experience symptoms of depression, think about suicide, make plans to die by suicide, and even make a suicide attempt each year.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction continues to provide information for youth suicide prevention to school staff, administrators, school boards, and other members of the school community. Training on the DPI Web-based Suicide Prevention Training for All School Staff web page includes information about DPI’s Gatekeeper Training Module, along with access to the Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) trainers in Wisconsin.
The Gatekeeper Training is a new, interactive suicide prevention module for all adults who work or volunteer in schools. It teaches a simple and effective skill for suicide prevention: ACT.
- A = Acknowledge the signs and symptoms
- C = Show Care and Concern for the person
- T = Talk/tell someone who knows how to intervene
The list of QPR trainers provides local access to training to reduce suicidal behaviors.
More face-to-face training is offered in different parts of the state as well, including the upcoming Northeast Suicide Prevention Summit. The summit will be held at the Liberty Hall Conference Center in Kimberly, Wisconsin on October 24, 2019, featuring keynote speaker Barbara Rubel.
Whether online or face-to-face, suicide prevention research has shown that brief training for adults is effective at increasing their capacity to identify, support, and refer at-risk youth.