Winter 2004

News! 
If you are a college student or faculty member please check out the new Student Resource Section on the QPR Institute Web site.  This area is designed to accomplish the following:

Continuing Education Credits

For those of you looking for NBCC approved continuing education credits based on home study of the two books provided you in your certification training (Counseling Suicidal People and Suicide: The Forever Decision), online quizzes are now available on the web site. Since you own the book, you need only pay the online quiz and registration fee ($29 for 6 hours of CECs based on the Forever Decision, and $49 for 10 hours of CECs based on the Counseling Suicidal People). Again, a certificate will be mailed to the address you provide. With this new system you can help keep the cost continuing education credits down.

PS: Since the Forever Decision book is now free as an electronic download, people who need this resource can get the book free and the CECs for the cost of the quiz and certificate only.

Thank you to Elinor Edmunds, Co-founder of the AFSP Montana Chapter for coordinating the certification of 55 new QPR Gatekeeper Instructors this past October.

News!
 Beginning in February 2004, the QPR Institute will begin offering training in cities throughout the United States.  Again, visit our web site home page for announcements about where and when both QPR Certified Gatekeeper Instructor Training and the QPRT Suicide Risk Assessment and Risk Management training is scheduled.  First stop, Salt Lake City!  If you want us to come to your city, please contact Kathy White.

Remember, if you are already certified as a QPR Gatekeeper Instructor, you are free to attend any scheduled Certification course as long as space is available (we'd love to see you).

News! 
The new Preventing Suicide: the National Journal, published by the Kristen Brooks Hope Center and funded by the federal government is now available online.  The journal contains com-prehensive articles on suicide prevention, cutting edge developments, updates on the Hopeline Network and a comprehensive listing of national events, workshops, and other developments. You can download it at info@hopeline.com.

Due to many inquiries about what a community-based suicide prevention program might look like, we’ve written a somewhat lengthy description of our philosophy, theoretical basis for action, and a draft of the elements and components we believe are important to consider in developing a comprehensive suicide risk reduction program for communities. Entitled QPR for Communities, the article can be found on our web site at the new Communities navigation button. Links are provided to several downloadable executive and research summaries, surveys, assessment tools, and other
informative documents to assist organizations interested in establishing community-based suicide prevention programs. We define communities as networks of people working in common cause for shared goals. Thus, a community could be a small town, university, church, police department or military unit. We think this article will be of value to any organization interested in suicide prevention.

It may be just because we travel so much and are in constant contact with the world of suicide prevention, but we are impressed with what appears to be a “change of climate” about preventing suicide in America. Consider the following:

News!
We are pleased to announce that the French edition version of Suicide the Forever Decision, by Dr. Paul Quinnett is now available as a free electronic download from the QPR web site. This scan of an earlier translation, French hard cover edition, has been upgraded to the 3rd edition. We wish to thank Lena Milovanova for her help and work on behalf of this edition. She consulted with several clinical professionals in France to verify the final copy for accuracy. Feel free to share this book and the announcement with all your French speaking contacts. We are happy to have others host the book on their web site.

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News!
Many of you are aware of the U.S. Air Force suicide prevention program. What you may not know is that a summary of this important work will soon be published in the British Medical Journal and that this study will be widely cited around the world as proof that suicide prevention is possible. Preventing Suicide: the National Journal will provide a review of the elements of the Air Force study in the March issue. We encourage you to contact the Kristin Brooks Hope Center to secure a copy. Their address is 201 North 23rd Street, Suite 100, Purcellville, VA 20132-3006, or info@hopeline.com.

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News!
The QPR Institute has partnered with the Eastern Washington University School of Social Work and Addictions Studies to deliver both traditional classroom and online college courses in suicide risk assessment and management. The first online course, QPR for Suicide Prevention, is now available. These courses can be taken anywhere there is a computer and a phone line and include offline study guides, CD-ROM lectures and audio-formatted materials. A Suicide Risk Assessment and Risk Management course featuring the QPRT Risk Management Inventory ©, expanded to a 30-hour in class course to include the role of substance abuse and co-occurring disorders, was oversubscribed almost the day after posting its availability.

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News!
Year 2001 Official Final Data on Suicide in the United States and 2001 Final Data on Rates, Number and Ranking of Each State are now available.. Click here

As part of their clinical training, we have been teaching QPR in a school of nursing education. When the nurses complete the course and pass our quiz (a two-hour QPR program), they get a Certificate of Course Completion from the QPR Institute with their name on it. Apparently these certificates are very important to the nursing students because when we stopped sending them out, we had many requests.

We are also aware with many first responder organizations, Certificates of Course Completion are valued as part of the credentialing process, and may desired by some of the people you train, including school personnel, law enforcement, crisis line workers and others. To address this apparent need we are going to conduct an experiment. Your participation is entirely voluntary and free.

The QPR Institute has set up an online Gatekeeper knowledge quiz which, when passed, will lead to a Certificate of Course Completion mailed directly to the address of the trainee. The certificate will show both the name of the Certified QPR Instructor (You), and the QPR Institute Director’s name. Here are the elements:

An online, fully confidential twelve item quiz based on the core QPR Gatekeeper training curriculum you now teach and that is covered in the QPR booklet and card. Participants must score 9 of 12 items correct to pass.

The certificate will qualify for one clock hour of continuing education credit as approved the National Board of Certified Counselors, provide that when the participants register for this quiz they include name, address and indicate they received the QPR booklet and card and the name of their Certified QPR Instructor (you). (This step assures NBCC the training was received as defined in our curriculum.)

When the participant passes the quiz, the Certificate of Course Completion will be mailed directly to the address provided.
The fee for the online quiz and Certificate of Course Completion will be $12.00, including postage, shipping & handling.

We think this offer of a certificate for QPR training that may be approved for continuing education credit (it has been approved by some bar associations, CPA organizations, police, fire and other first responder organizations) will help open doors for all of you to train more Gatekeepers and give greater value to suicide prevention training overall. To see how it will work and to take the quiz, go to the Instructor's Resource Section and follow instructions provided on the main page. Email us to indicate what you think.