India Way, budget and finance committee chair, and Trey Fields, Student Affairs committee chair, addressed the senate about suicide prevention training available to students called QPR.
QPR stands for question, persuade, refer and offers training sessions to anyone who wants to learn how to detect signs someone may be having suicidal thoughts, according to Way.
Fields said suicide is the 10th leading cause of death and the second among college students.
“We’re trying to tackle the issue of suicides and suicidal thoughts,” Fields said.
SGA is working with Eric Smith, Health Promotion and Wellness Services director, to promote QPR and the services it provides.
“We’re trying to get the word out that QPR training is available to anybody,” Way said. “So to kind of promote that what we’re doing is going ahead and scheduling multiple training sessions for the semester…it’s to raise awareness that this is a resource you have available to you as a student.”
Way said the program helps people learn how to recognize and deal with someone showing signs of suicidal thoughts.
“What QPR is going to do is teach how to recognize the signs of suicidal thoughts and how to talk to them about it and what to do beyond that,” Way said.
Jacqueline Keck, Academic Affairs committee chair, said she and SGA executives met with the provost office and are making strides toward gaining more faculty support for the creation of a course catalog.
“Now we have support from higher up,” Keck said. “We’re hoping things can get moving more quickly.”
Brad Smith, SGA adviser, encouraged senators to stay focused in the final weeks of their term.
“We’re not done yet,” Smith said. “You’ve still got a lot of work to do…don’t check out.”
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