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Orientation and program description packet includes:
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Dear Director of Counseling Services;
Enclosed with this letter is a copy of Dr. Quinnett’s newest book, Counseling Suicidal People, a Therapy of Hope as well as a web-enabled interactive CD-ROM of our basic QPR Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper training program. We hope you find these educational items of some value. They are yours to keep. (Please note, we will send the above items and the proposal on request to a designated person at your direction).
The QPR Institute is devoted to the prevention of suicide. Ours is an educational mission and this letter is to inform you of a new program designed to help reduce suicidal behaviors among college and university students, as well as staff and faculty and their family members.
As you may be aware, suicide prevention is coming to America. Historic social policy is developing (Surgeon General, 2001; IOM, 2004), together with strong recommendations for action. Historically, those in the helping professions have been poorly trained to assess and manage suicidal clients (Neimeyer, 2000; Bongar & Harmatz, 1991; King et. al., 1999), and major professional groups are targeted for specific training in the recognition, assessment and treatment of persons at elevated risk for suicidal behaviors. The purpose of this letter is to inform you about our suicide risk reduction program for colleges and universities and to provide you with an executive summary about suicide on college campuses (see enclosed summary).
In partnership with Eastern Washington University, the QPR Institute can now offer distance learning and online training programs to fully qualify you and your staff to train key campus gatekeepers and to standardize your suicide risk assessment efforts with an award-winning assessment protocol. Installing this integrated, systems-based program will help advance the goals and objectives of the Surgeon General’s 2001 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. Onsite training is available as well.
While student suicide is the second cause of death on college campuses, it remains a rare event. However, college health surveys have shown that roughly 10% of college students have seriously considered suicide; thus suicidal thinking and non-fatal attempts are not rare. As you know, every college counseling service must deal effectively with this behavior. Litigation in this area is also increasing.
To reduce suicide risk on college campuses, the QPR Institute has successfully installed its university suicide risk reduction program in a several large universities, including the University of Southern Connecticut, University of Kentucky and Texas A&M. In all settings thus far the counseling centers have taken the lead in introducing and carrying out this program.
With our newly tested distance learning technology and partnership with Eastern Washington University, we are now able to extend this program to small and medium-sized colleges and universities at very reasonable costs, and with no degradation in educational value. Using online and self-study training modules we can:
When implemented on your campus, these interlocking programs provide a comprehensive suicide risk reduction program that may help save a life from suicide, prevent non-fatal suicide attempts, and reduce your exposure to claims of negligence and/or suicide malpractice. Inclusive of training and technical support, most colleges can install this program as outlined for less than $3,000.
We invite you to review the enclosed materials and accept the book and CD-ROM program as a token of our appreciation for your time. We invite you to visit our web site for additional information and to learn more about us and, while there, explore the student/faculty password protected area of the site (password: s4sp). There you will find student/faculty discounts for some of our books and materials, as well as other items of interest.
Sincerely,
Brian Quinnett, M.S.
National Training Director
Enclosures
References:
Bongar, B., & Harmatz, M. (1991). Clinical psychology in graduate education in the study of suicide: Availability, resources, and importance. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 21, 231-244
Institute of Medicine, (2002). Reducing Suicide: a National Imperative.
King, A., Kovan, R., London, R., & Bongar, B. (1999). Toward a standard of care for treating suicidal outpatients: A survey of social workers’ beliefs about appropriate treatment behaviors. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 29, 347-352
National Strategy for Suicide Prevention: Goals and Objectives for Action, 2001, Dept. of Health and Human Services
Neimeyer, R.A. (2000). Suicide and hastened death: Toward
a training agenda for counseling psychology. The Counseling Psychologist,
28, 551-560
