Educate
We promote and facilitate a variety of training programs to educate gatekeepers in our local communities.
Training Programs
The SAM Foundation acts as a link to multiple organizations that provide suicide awareness and prevention training.
All training programs are provided at no cost.
Click on a program below to read more about it and determine what may work for you and your organization.
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Training Program Descriptions
Further detailed information on all the training programs we offer
Question. Persuade. Refer. (QPR)
Training Objectives
This program teaches people to do the following:
- Recognize the warning signs of suicide
- How to talk with someone who may be at risk for suicide and persuade them to get help
- Refer at-risk individuals to appropriate resources for help
Audiences
Who can be trained:
- Individuals
- Organizations
- Professional groups
Who is helped:
- Community members
Training Format & Highlights
QPR comes in different versions for the following audiences:
- Individuals: Online
- Organizations: Online or in-person
- Professional groups, including health care professionals, veterans, law enforcement, firefighters & EMS
- Extended learning options are available beyond basic QPR courses.
For More Information: QPR Institute | SPRC Listing -QPR
The Jason Foundation
Training Objectives
This program teaches people to do the following:
- Recognize the warning signs of suicide
- How to talk with someone who may be at risk for suicide and persuade them to get help
- Refer at-risk individuals to appropriate resources for help
Audiences
Who can be trained:
- Teachers and other school personnel
- Parents
- High school students
Who is helped:
- High school students
Training Format & Highlights
This training is available in one to two hour modules. Training conducted on line or in a live meeting with facilitator. Modules include:
- Suicide Postvention: The Critical Role of Educators
- Childhood and Teen Depression for Educators
- Non-Suicidal Self-Injury
- Bullying and Suicide
- Youth Suicide: “A Silent Epidemic”
- Mental Health Issues Surrounding Suicidal Ideation
- Suicide Prevention Among LGBT Youth
- Prevention is the Key
- The History of Suicide Prevention
For More Information: Courses – The Jason Foundation
Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)
Training Objectives
This program teaches people to do the following:
- Understand how attitudes affect views on suicide and prevention
- Provide assistance and suicide first aid to a person at risk
- Identify the elements of a suicide safety plan and the actions needed to implement it
- Value improving and integrating suicide prevention resources in the community
- Recognize other aspects of suicide prevention, including self-care
Audiences
Who can be trained:
- Anyone ages 16 and older (e.g., health care providers, teachers and other school staff, clergy, community volunteers, first responders, and caregivers)
Who is helped:
- Individuals who have thoughts of suicide
Training Format & Highlights
2-day, 15-hour workshop led by two LivingWorks registered trainers
- Includes presentations, videos, group discussions, and skills practice and development
- Training-of-trainers available
Lifelines®: A Comprehensive Suicide Awareness and Responsiveness Program for Teens
Training Objectives
This program teaches people to do the following:
- Understand the facts about suicide and their roles in suicide prevention
- Understand how to involve parents and guardians as partners
- Gather information about a student’s risk for suicide and understand the warning signs of suicide
- Talk with at-risk students and assist them in getting more help as needed
Audiences
Who can be trained:
- Middle and high school administrators
- Faculty
- Staff
- Parents
- Students
Who is helped:
- Middle and high school students
Training Format & Highlights
This is a whole-school program with three components:
- Lifelines: Prevention
- Lifelines: Intervention
- Lifelines: Postvention
Each component includes a facilitator guide, DVDs, and a USB flash drive with reproducible materials and handouts
For More Information: Hazelden Lifelines® | SPRC Listing – Lifelines
More Than Sad
Training Objectives
This program teaches people to do the following:
For school personnel
- Understand their school’s resources, policies, and protocols for identifying and assisting youth at risk of suicide
- Identify the signs of depression and other mental health problems in youth
- Access help and/or refer youth for help
For parents
- Identify the signs of depression and other mental health problems in youth
- Talk about mental health with their child
- Get help for their child
For students
- Identify the signs of depression in themselves and others
- Challenge prejudice surrounding depression
- Promote the importance of seeking help
- Understand the treatment process
Audiences
Who can be trained:
- Teachers and other school personnel
- Parents
- High school students
Who is helped:
- High school students
Training Format & Highlights
This training is available in three formats for the following audiences:
- Teachers and other school personnel
- Parents (English and Spanish)
- High school students
Each program incorporates one or both of the following 25-minute videos:
- More Than Sad: Preventing Teen Suicide
- More Than Sad: Teen Depression
Sources of Strength
Training Objectives
This program teaches people to do the following:
- Change peer group norms that influence coping practices and problem behaviors (e.g., self-harm)
- Promote protective factors that are linked to overall psychological wellness and reduced suicide risk
- Reduce the acceptability of suicide as a response to distress
- Increase the acceptability of seeking help
- Improve communication between youth and adults
- Develop healthy coping attitudes among youth
Audiences
Who can be trained:
- Adult advisors (e.g., school counselors, teachers, youth workers, pastors and spiritual leaders, and are often a mix of school staff and community adults who have a high degree of connection with students)
- Peer leaders
Who is helped:
- Youth and young adults
Training Format & Highlights
- Adult advisors are given an orientation training and monthly teleconference support with Sources of Strength staff. Their role is to support the peer teams.
- Peer leaders spend 15–50 hours during a 3–6 month program, which includes an initial training, although the program is designed to last multiple years.
- The program is most often based in a school (middle, high school, or college), but it can also be implemented in community, faithbased, and diverse cultural settings.
For More Information: Sources of Strength | SPRC Listing – Sources of Strength
Community Strategic Planning for Suicide Prevention
Training Objectives
Participants will complete a strategic planning process that will result in the development of a guide that can be used to direct suicide prevention activities, programs and other efforts to create a suicide safer community
Audiences
Who can be trained:
- Concerned community leaders including local government officials, faith leaders, school administrators, medical facility administrators, etc.
Training Format & Highlights
In up to six sessions over a period of several months participants will be led in the development of a strategic plan that will:
- Describe the suicide problem and its context.
- Choose long-term goals for a suicide prevention program.
- Identify key risk and protective factors on which to focus.
- Select or develop interventions that will decrease or increase these risk and protective factors.
- Plan an evaluation.
- Decide if this group will implement the interventions and the evaluation
For More Information: https://www.sprc.org/effective-prevention/comprehensive-approach
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) / Youth or Adult
Training Objectives
In the Mental Health First Aid course, participants learn risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, strategies for how to help someone in both crisis and non-crisis situations, and where to turn for help.
Participants learn to assist someone experiencing a mental health or substance use-related crisis.
Audiences
Who can be trained:
- Adult -Anyone age 18 and older who wants to learn how to help a person who may be experiencing a mental health related crisis or problem.
- Youth – Primarily intended for adults to learn how to help young people experiencing mental health challenges or crises. It reviews the unique risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems in adolescents ages 12-18 and emphasizes the importance of early intervention.
Training Format & Highlights
Topics covered:
- Anxiety disorders
- Trauma
- Psychosis
- Substance Use disorders
- Depression and mood disorders
Mental Health First Aid teaches about recovery and resiliency – the belief that individuals experiencing these challenges can and do get better, and use their strengths to stay well.
* Classes offered virtually or in person
For More Information: https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/take-a-course/
Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR)
Training Objectives
AMSR is a one-day training workshop for behavioral health professionals. The 6.5-hour training program is based on the latest research and designed to help participants provide safer suicide care.
Audiences
AMSR is designed for health care providers who have a master’s or doctoral degree in a behavioral health field, including:
- Social workers
- Professional counselors
- Marriage and family therapists
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Psychiatric nurses
Training Format & Highlights
AMSR presents five of the most common dilemmas faced by providers and the best practices for addressing them. Teaching and skill-building methods include:
- Video demonstrations
- Group discussion
- Paired practice
- Documentation practice
- Reflection
- Expert teaching
For More Information: https://www.sprc.org/training-events/amsr
Interested in any of the above?
Please fill out the form below if you are interested in a talk, training session, volunteering, participating/attending an event.