QPR for Crisis Volunteers and Students

Why it will work

When people are in a suicidal crisis they need help NOW! For online suicide crisis intervention to be effective it must be accessible, available 24/7, affordable at no or low cost, and anonymous. Convenience and privacy cannot be overemphasized for high risk groups, including males, youth, LGBT folks, and others. Helpers responding to those at-risk and untreated who cannot or will not access traditional services must be well trained. That is our aim!

Why this training program?

Sigmund Freud once said, “By words alone one person can make another person blissfully happy or drive him to despair.” In this unique course you will learn to use the power of the written word to save lives. The arc of human communications has been forever changed by the Internet, and this training program was created specifically to help suicidal people seeking assistance in cyberspace.

International students please note

Suicide rates for QPR courses are US-specific. To determine suicide rates in your country, please visit the World Health Organization at http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide_rates/en/ .

As you will see, many of these reports are quite dated. If your country keeps such data but does not necessarily report to WHO, try Googling federal, state, or province name and "suicide rate." If you are teaching suicide prevention courses you will need this data; the more local the data the better. But remember that suicide rates need 5 to 10 year horizons to be of much value as to interpreting any changes in trend lines.

The training program

Modularized in a rich mix of text, video, voice-over PowerPoint™ lectures, interactive practice sessions, and other state-of-the-art interactive and e-learning technologies, by the end of your training experience you will have met or exceeded the educational standards currently in place for clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and clinical social workers in terms of knowledge competencies in this area of practice.

Prerequisites include text messaging and web navigation skills. The course is SCORM compliant and approved for continuing education.

Core competencies taught

The suicide crisis intervention and risk assessment competencies taught in this course are derived from nationally defined standards and recommendations as published by the American Association of Suicidology and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.  Further, these competencies are framed within the 2009 Practice Guidelines: Core Elements in Responding to Mental Health Crises as published by the U.S. Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Note:

This course is not a comprehensive or substitute training program in counselor education, but rather a value-added skill set for those serving persons at-risk for suicidal behaviors. Also, this training program focuses almost entirely on suicide crisis intervention and strategies for risk reduction and risk management. It is not a general crisis intervention course which would typically include the following subjects: crisis theory, components of a crisis, general crisis intervention principles and approaches, crisis counseling, mental health diagnostics, or involuntary treatment laws in your state, province or country. Rather, this is a highly condensed training for the detection, assessment, and short term management of acute suicidal crises.

The key knowledge competencies taught to all participants to earn a Certificate of Course Completion are listed below.

1. Describe the size and scope of the problem of suicide in America and/or in the learner's own country
2. Identify key elements of one National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (US)
3. Immediately reduce the acute distress, despair, and hopelessness of suicidal people through an empathic, understanding screening and assessment interview in which protective factors can be brought into play to create a safety and referral plan to reduce the risk of a suicide attempt
4. Recognize someone at risk for suicide
5. Demonstrate increased knowledge of intervention skills
6. Describe knowledge of referral resources and how to refer someone to help
7. Understand the common myths and facts surrounding suicidal behavior
8. Recognize and identify at least three suicide warning signs
9. Describe the relationship of untreated clinical depression and other mental illnesses and substance abuse to increased suicide risk
10. Understand means restriction and how to immediately reduce risk
11. Recognize and identify three risk factors for suicide
12. Recognize and identify three protective factors against suicide
13. Demonstrate how to ask about potential suicidal intent (in role-play)
14. Demonstrate how to listen and persuade someone to get help (in role-play)
15. Demonstrate how to make a referral for professional assistance (in optional downloadable role-play)
16. Explain why reducing access to lethal means is an effective way of saving lives
17. Describe the role of impulsivity, ambivalence, and differing lethality of methods in contributing to suicide deaths and attempts
18. Describe how counseling on access to lethal means fits into suicide prevention counseling
19. Ask suicidal people about their access to lethal means and work to reduce access
20. Understands the ethical principles for online crisis and counseling
21. Understands suicidal behavior, terms, statistics, phenomenology
22. Understands common myths and misconceptions about suicide
23. Understands suicidal desire and its sources
24. Understands suicidal capability (attempt history, intoxication, etc.)
25. Understands suicidal intent (attempt in progress, lethal planning, etc.)
26. Understands the relationship of suicide to violence toward others
27. Understands suicide buffers (social supports, ambivalence, etc.)
28. Demonstrates knowledge of suicide risk and protective factors
29. Understands the relationship psychiatric illness to suicide
30. Identifies high risk groups, especially in cyberspace
31. Understands involuntary treatment laws/need to rescue
32. Interview potentially suicidal people and determine immediate risk of a suicide attempt
33. Reduce the risk of a suicide attempt through a collaborative crisis and safety planning process
34. Know what to say, what questions to ask, what the answers to your questions mean, and how these answers will determine what needs to be done to prevent a suicide attempt
35. Estimate the level of acute suicide risk using a "best practice" methodology used by thousands of mental health professionals
36. Understand common terms and communicate effectively about suicide risk with other professionals
37. Document precise and accurate suicide risk information in a concise and competent manner

The Certificate of Course Completion means that the learner completed all modules and successfully passed all required quizzes, exams, and practice challenges, thus demonstrating having mastered the knowledge competencies listed above. This includes earning the basic QPR Gatekeeper Training for Suicide Prevention certificate.

Pricing

This particular course targets volunteers and students hoping to train in, and gain experience working with, people in crisis accessing any crisis service in any setting. The course is priced accordingly. Paid professionals may be interested in the QPR Suicide Triage training or the OCSIS training program.

NOTE: If you intend to purchase more than one course, please contact Kathryn White at (888) 726-7926 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Individual Certificate Pricing:

For any questions with pricing, please contact Brian Quinnett @ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Thank you for helping to prevent suicide.

Testimonials

What volunteers and professionals say about the elements of this training program.

Benefits and recommendations

“I liked how the didactic aspects of this training were interspersed with videos, actual cases and personal stories.” -Karen Varano

“I think the most beneficial part of the training was having the ability to do practice exercises with real cases and responses. Simulating an actual setting you might come across later is vital to fully understanding it.” -Danielle Cantarella

“I really liked how I was able to complete this training at my own pace. As a college student, I am often very busy with classes and other activities, but I was able to complete the training on time because I was allowed to do it whenever I had free time.” -Kayla Michelle Imrisek

“I would say that this program takes a lot of very important and helpful information and delivers it in an easy to read, easy to understand manner. Though I would not consider the course easy, I would say that after completion it is rewarding, and very encouraging.” – crisis line volunteer

“I already posted Dr. Quinnett's free e-book on my facebook page and to the online facebook community I joined after 3 Cornell University Students jumped to their deaths in one month recently.” – a college student