Training & Services for Schools
There are many training opportunities and services that have been created especially for school administrators.
Our most popular service for school administrators is QPR Gatekeeper Training: Three simple steps that can save a life are Question, Persuade, and Refer.
People trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to question, persuade, to offer hope and to refer someone to help, often saving their life.
A gatekeeper is someone in the position to recognize a crisis and the warning signs that someone may be contemplating suicide.
Gatekeepers include parents, friends, neighbors, teachers, ministers, doctors, nurses, office supervisors, squad leaders, foremen, police officers, advisors, caseworkers, fire fighters and many others who are strategically positioned to recognize and refer someone at risk of suicide.
QPR Gatekeeper training can be learned in as little as an hour. The training can also be expanded to include other topics such as self-harm, depression, and is tailored specifically for teaching staff. QPR can successfully teach school administrators, personnel and teachers how to identify and assist a student who may be suicidal.
Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)
ASIST is similar to QPR, but this training program offers more in-depth intervention tactics. The aim of ASIST is to teach caregivers the necessary skills to provide emergency psychological first aid in situations involving suicidal behavior. The emphasis of the ASIST workshop is on suicide first aid, on helping a person stay safe and seek further help. The program is conducted over two days. Participants learn how to:
- Recognize that persons at risk are affected by personal and societal attitudes about suicide
- Identify factors that indicate and estimate the risk of suicide,
- Estimate the degree of risk,
- Discuss suicide with a person at risk in a direct manner,
- Demonstrate the skills required to intervene with a person at risk of suicide,
- List the resources, including themselves, available to a person at risk of suicide, and
- Commit to helping coordinate social support resources to persons at risk of suicide.
Additional Programs
Feeling Blue Suicide Prevention Council has also developed a four-hour presentation reviewing the different national school suicide prevention programs that are currently available. Participants learn key components of each program, which programs are evidence- based, along with each program's strengths and weaknesses. Contact us for more information.
The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), has designed a summary of the different suicide prevention programs. Visit their website, www.sprc.org, to obtain these summaries.
The American Association of Suicidology (AAS) has created a list of recommended list as well as evaluation guidelines for school/teen suicide prevention videos. Click here to view this list.
We also collaborate with many of these programs by periodically hosting trainings for their programs. Please see our calendar of events to find out if one is being offered sometime in the future. You may also contact us to request a training.
We operate on a sliding fee scale for other nonprofit organizations; please call us at 610.715.0076 to schedule a training, presentation or to obtain more information.
