Suicide Prevention Training offers tips on how to help friends and family in need

Many members of the Wrangell community, as well as guides from Alaska Crossings, crammed into the Stikine Middle School commons last Saturday afternoon for QPR suicide prevention training. The training was lead by Jay Greene and Tracey Wiese, of the Full Spectrum health clinic in Anchorage. They were invited to Wrangell by Community Roots, the local LGBT support group.

Suicide is something that is very prevalent in Alaskan communities, they explained during the training, and is higher than average compared to the rest of the country. Across the entire state, it is the fifth leading cause of death. In the rest of the United States, it is the tenth leading cause of death. However, for Alaskans between the ages of 15 to 24, it is the leading cause of death in the state. Men are also more likely to successfully kill themselves than women, Greene said, though the rate of attempts are likely close to equal. Wiese added that Alaskan natives, veterans, and senior citizens are also at a higher risk of suicide. It is not just a problem that affects those who kill themselves, they said. A death can affect lots of people beyond the one dying and their immediate family.

"Essentially, if you think about dropping a pebble in a body of water, those ripples just start to ripple out, right?" Wiese said. "So we have an individual who commits suicide, and that of course affects their families, their peers, their coworkers. It also, especially in small communities, affects the entire community: The entire school system, all of the businesses that are in that community, everybody is feeling the effects of that one individual's suicide. Ultimately, those ripples end up affecting society as a whole."

Greene and Wiese explained that the QPR training, which stands for "Question, Persuade, Refer" is designed to give people some general advice and tips on how to communicate with somebody who is contemplating suicide. It is not meant to replace professional counseling or medical help, they said, but is meant to act as a gateway between someone seeing warning signs in a family member or friend, and that person actually becoming a danger to themselves.

During the training, the group went over some warning signs people should be on the lookout for. There are three general categories, Greene explained: Verbal, situational, and behavioral. The more signs a person shows, the greater the risk.

"We take all signs seriously," Green said. "There's three main signs. Humans love to categorize things. That's good, because we have science, and sometimes that's bad because we have stereotypes."

Verbal warning signs can include things like somebody saying they want to fall asleep and never wake up, or talking about how they wish they were dead, or anything that raises red flags. Situational warning signs can be anything a concerned person knows their friend or family member is struggling with. This could be a divorce, Greene said, or they've just moved to a new town and have trouble finding their place, or they've had a big fight with their spouse, or there's been a death in the family. Behavioral warning signs include things like a person becoming much more impulsive, turning to alcohol or drugs more than usual, major shifts in personality, or even a sudden interest, or lack of interest, in religion.

If one sees a person showing some of these signs, they said, and this is causing concern, all one has to do is follow the QPR model: Question, Persuade, Refer. These are, in basic terms, the three steps to take to help someone who may be contemplating suicide. The first step is simply to question them, and ask if they are thinking about killing themselves. This should be done in a private setting, Wiese and Greene said, and the person being questioned should be given all the time they need to speak their mind. It is important to remain as free of judgment as possible, too, they said. If the person does admit to thinking about suicide, the second step is to try and persuade them against the idea. Suicide is not a problem to a suicidal person, they said, it is perceived as a solution to their other problems. They should be reminded of all the people who care about them, ask who is going to take care of their family members and pets, and demonstrate that others around them care about what happens to them. They should be offered as much hope as possible, Wiese and Greene said. Lastly, the third step is to refer the person in question to professional help. They can be escorted personally to a clinic or counselor, in the best case scenario. If not, they should be at least made to promise to go get some professional help themselves. There should be follow up calls the next day, they added, and plans made to get coffee or hang out with them at a later date.

The training concluded with Greene and Wiese giving out lots of information on where people can receive help. There are numerous phone lines, both across the state and nationally, where people can find somebody to talk to. These include, among many others, the Alaska Careline Crisis Intervention at 1-877-266-4357 or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Locally, the AICS-SEARHC behavioral health clinic can be reached at (907) 874-5000 or at http://www.akics.org. After the event, Greene commented that he and Wiese were amazed by, and very grateful for, the turnout and how passionate the Wrangell community was about this issue.