SPECIAL NOTICE: Question, Persuade and Refer (QPR) and Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid are now available as live, online classes! Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) also available online.
We’ve been given the opportunity to offer three important classes live and online – Question, Persuade & Refer (QPR) – a two hour introductory suicide prevention training. Also now available online & live is Adult Mental Health First Aid (AMHFA) and Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) -- in two parts -- part 1 is approximately 2.5 hour online self paced that the participant completes independently and part 2 is live, online with instructors and classmates for approximately 7 to 7.5 hours (with a longer break at lunch an other breaks during training). Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) is also available online in a self-paced format, estimated to take about 2 hours to complete.
In addition to offering essential suicide prevention training, QPR is also about listening, support and connection. As the QPR Institute wrote in a recent paper “QPR in the Time of Pandemic...while the QPR method was developed specifically to detect and respond to people emitting suicide warning signs, QPR has evolved into a broader tool to enhance human-to-human interactions, reduce human isolation, and improve social connectedness.”
“Right now our society needs more than just an intervention to prevent suicide…..it needs to provide a pathway to enable people everywhere in how to make positive, sustainable, social connections across the age span with anyone suffering in silence – with or without a treatable mental health problem, and whether or not they are suicidal.”
AMHFA and YMHFA training gives you the essential tools to support adults or youth (aged 12-18) with mental health challenges and connect them with help. Participants learn about the impact of mental illness in the U.S., how to notice signs and symptoms of mental health challenges at early and worsening stages and during a crisis and a five-step action plan to help an individual in crisis connect to professional care.
We hope you can join us. To register, go to "find a class" in the upper menu, click on the "register" button next to an available training, complete the registration form and click on the "process registration" button and you are good to go. You may access CALM here.
We are only able to offer online classes; no in-person classes will be held until we can safely gather. Thank you for your patience and understanding. And we appreciate your interest and commitment to getting trained to help.
In the meantime, we hope you and your loved ones are safe and well. For resources, updates and other information, we encourage you to consult the Oregon Health Authority or your local County Public Health Office.
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Empowering communities about mental health & suicide prevention -- learn how to offer help and seek support.
If you found yourself with a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or student in the middle of a mental health or emotional crisis, would you know how to help? Do you coach young people, assist the elderly, or work with the public? What do you do after asking “Are you okay?”
With the help of skilled, qualified trainers, you can become part of a growing community of people who are getting trained to become a first aid responder to an individual having an anxiety attack, suicidal thoughts, or showing signs of depression.