Student Counseling Services and Health Promotion and Wellness Services hosted a suicide prevention training day on Wedneday, Sept. 21 to help students and other Auburn Family members recognize the signs of suicidal thoughts in others.
They provided Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) training every hour from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Student Center and was open to all students, faculty and staff members.
“The goal is to teach, what we call, Gatekeepers so that they are aware of what things people might say or how they might behave or act that might indicate that there is some kind of suicidal thoughts going on,” said Doug Hankes, a psychologist at the Student Counseling Center.
Hankes said QPR is the mental health equivalent to CPR.
“We wanted to make it more campus wide so we brought in a master trainer,” Hankes said. “Her name is Mary Chandler Bolin and she is the Counseling Center director of Kentucky and we identified specific individuals in colleges, departments and units all across campus with the idea that if we train them they will go back to their home and train the gatekeepers.”
Hankes said the Student Counseling Center will go out to train QPR by request at any time, but the marathon was a chance to train a large amount of people in one day.
The goal of the event was to help people pay better attention to the signs of suicide, help people to not be scared and know how to respond the situation, Hankes said.
“It is teaching people what are the signs and symptoms to look for, some background and dispelling myths that are surrounding suicide,” Hankes said.
Hankes said QPR is just one more opportunity to help people have uncomfortable conversations about suicide and know how to handle them properly.
Eric Smith, director of Health Promotion and Wellness, said there is an estimated one million lost-survivors, people who have been impacted by suicide.
“The goal is to train as many people as possible,” Smith said.
Smith said student counseling services will have QPR training for the Greek life chapters as well as individual training for the presidents of each sorority and fraternity.
“QPR is based on the philosophy of hope and hope is the anecdote of suicide,” Smith said. “Through QPR you can give somebody just a little bit of hope to get through today and maybe get through tomorrow and if we can start building on that then we can get you through next week, next month, next year and keep you alive.”
According to the QPR Institute website, the goal of QPR is to save lives and reduce suicide behaviors by applying this training to individuals and that the quality education is empowers people to make a difference in someone’s life.
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